CTO Names Marketplace Excellence to Lead Communications Efforts

Bridgetown, BARBADOS (March 10, 2023) – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has appointed Marketplace Excellence Corporation (MPE) as its communications consultant for a six-month period.

MPE, a U.S.-based public relations, marketing and media agency with strong Caribbean roots and extensive tourism and hospitality experience, will provide strategic communications services to support the CTO’s work.

“The appointment of MPE is part of the CTO’s efforts to refine, strengthen, and amplify our corporate messaging,” said Rosa Harris, Chairman of the CTO’s Board of Directors, who emphasized that the development and execution of an effective strategic communications program will help to elevate the organization’s important work.

MPE’s scope of work for the CTO includes prioritizing the organization’s global and regional brand positioning, as well as coordinating comprehensive media relations and digital communications programs.

Neil Walters, Acting Secretary General of the CTO, expressed his satisfaction with the appointment of MPE following a competitive bidding process, saying, “We have historically enjoyed a productive relationship with MPE and its president Bevan Springer, who has made significant contributions to the tourism communications landscape over the years as a journalist and now as a communications executive.”

Springer said MPE continues to be focused on raising the profile of Caribbean tourism and looks forward to sharing the expertise of its team of communications experts to elevate the CTO’s brand regionally and across the globe.

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About the Caribbean Tourism Organization

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which is headquartered in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of the region’s finest countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish-speaking, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean. Among the benefits to its members the organization provides specialised support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution and research & information technology.

The CTO’s Headquarters is located at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados BB 22026; Tel: (246) 427-5242; E-mail: CTObarbados@caribtourism.comFor more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization, please visit www.OneCaribbean.org and follow CTO on FacebookTwitterInstagram and LinkedIn to be part of the conversation.

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CTO leader bats for gender equality in Caribbean tourism

BARBADOS (March 8, 2023) – The chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Kenneth Bryan said the focus of International Women’s Day (IWD) this year reminded him of how much women have contributed to the success of the region’s most dynamic economic driver, tourism.

Bryan, who is the Minister of Tourism and Transport of the Cayman Islands, said the IWD theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” aligns with the intergovernmental organization’s aim “to put more women in positions of influence so they can not only enhance the efficiency of our region’s major economic earner, but also be an exemplar for women everywhere.”

The tourism leader stated, “We want to strengthen our efforts to give women the technical education needed to enable them to explore, learn, and rally for their rights, which will enhance the ability of the CTO to coalesce its best and brightest people for the betterment of our tourism product, and for the people of the Caribbean.”

“We must work to redress the imbalance and inequity in tourism with increased recruitment, training and education of women to rebuild the pandemic-affected workforce into a more equitable and productive sector,” Bryan said.

Bryan, who chairs the CTO’s Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism, said he wanted to ensure young women were fairly represented among new recruits into the sector, and that the industry was diverse enough to incorporate the entrepreneurial skills of a new generation of professionals.

He added that women had to be elevated from being among the lowest paid and lowest status jobs in tourism to being recognized for the significant amount of unpaid work they often perform in family tourism businesses.

Minister Bryan reasoned that there is no need to reinvent the wheel because thanks to the UN World Tourism Organization (WTO) there are published guidelines on how the public and private sectors of Caribbean and other countries can provide specific tools to support tourism institutions and businesses to integrate gender considerations into their policies, programming and strategies and boost the opportunities tourism offers for women’s empowerment.

He said International Women’s Day is an excellent and timely reminder of the need of Caribbean women for employment with equitable remuneration, entrepreneurship, leadership, community and education “to ensure that tourism in our region can act as a vehicle for the empowerment of women whilst highlighting and dealing with the remaining challenges for gender equality in tourism.”

About the Caribbean Tourism Organization

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which is headquartered in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of the region’s finest countries and territories, including Dutch-, English-, French- and Spanish-speaking, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm-weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean. Among the benefits to its members the organization provides specialized support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution, and research & information technology.

The CTO’s Headquarters is located at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados BB 22026; Tel: (246) 427-5242; E-mail: CTObarbados@caribtourism.com.

For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization, please visit www.OneCaribbean.org and follow CTO on FacebookTwitterInstagram and LinkedIn to be part of the conversation.

Posted in: 2022 News, Blog, Corporate News

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CTO reports promising outlook for the region in 2023

BARBADOS (March 7, 2023) – Despite global pressures such as high inflation, the war in Ukraine, the ensuing energy crisis, and an impending economic recession, the outlook for Caribbean travel and tourism is favorable, according to the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

CTO Chairman Kenneth Bryan (left) and Acting CTO Secretary General Neil Walters are pictured at March 7 press conference in Barbados.

Delivering the region’s 2022 “Tourism Performance and Outlook Report” in Bridgetown today, Neil Walters, Acting Secretary General of the CTO, confirmed that the Caribbean had one of the quickest recovery rates globally in 2022, with 28.3 million registered tourist visits in 2022. This represents 88.6 percent of the visitors who arrived in 2019, which served as the baseline year for typical tourism activity before the pandemic.

He reported that international travel is expected to contribute to the region’s substantial gains already registered thanks to the robust United States market, which continues to drive the region’s recovery.

There was an estimated 28.1 percent increase in visitors coming from the U.S. market in 2022. At the end of the year, 14.6 million American tourists visited the region, 3.2 million more than the 11.4 million in 2021.

Arrivals from the European market increased by 81 percent in 2022 when compared to 2021. The 5.2 million tourists from this market were almost double the 2.8 million in 2021. This represented 18.3 percent of all arrivals in 2022,

Due to travel restrictions in early 2022, the Canadian market has recovered more slowly at 60 percent, while the lack of availability of intra-regional airlift has negatively impacted regional connectivity.

“Nearly 90 percent of the region’s travel demand for 2019 has already been recovered,” reported Walters, with destinations such as Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Turks and Caicos, and the U.S. Virgin Islands already surpassing their pre-pandemic levels.

Caribbean destinations can expect this recovery to continue into 2023, albeit at a slower rate, Walters explained, predicting that growth will be uneven among the destinations, with additional countries and territories exceeding their 2019 levels.

According to STR, the average daily rate at hotels increased by 21.7 percent to US$290.60 in 2022. The revenue per available room surged by 66.4 percent to $176.46, and the number of available rooms (up 4.4 percent) as well as room income (up 73.6 percent) increased. After two challenging years for the aviation industry, global air passenger traffic recovered significantly in 2022.

It is estimated that visitors to the Caribbean region spent between $36.5 and $37.5 billion in 2022, an increase of 70 to 75 percent compared to 2021.

It is expected that overall arrivals to the region will increase by between 10 and 15 percent when compared to 2022, with 31.2 to 32.6 million tourists visiting the region this year. The cruise industry is also anticipated to continue recovering and expanding to meet increasing demand, with 32 to 33 million cruise passenger visits expected – a five to 10 percent increase over the pre-COVID baseline figure.

Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism, Kenneth Bryan, who also serves as the Cayman Islands’ Minister of Tourism and Transport, summarized that in the face of the devastating blows delivered by the pandemic, “as a region, we have responded with hope, strength and the determination to prevail.”

Minister Bryan reiterated that great strides have been made in Caribbean tourism, a clear indication that the sector is bouncing back, and hopes are high that the robust pace of recovery will continue into 2023 and beyond. “So although we have not yet surpassed 2019’s numbers across the board in every jurisdiction, the needle is certainly moving in the right direction,” he commented.

The chairman envisioned 2023 as a period of growth and development for the CTO, and he and his team were laser-focused on growing the membership, including countries, territories as well as allied partners. “It is also my intention to strengthen the relationships with other organizations, such as the United Nations World Travel Organization, the World Travel and Tourism Council, and even the Central American Tourism Promotion Agency (CATA), to foster greater collaboration,” said Minister Bryan. Consideration is being given to the restructuring of the organization and reforming its strategic vision and direction for the next five years, which includes the appointment of a new Secretary-General, he confirmed.

Minister Bryan announced the return of CTO’s Caribbean Week in New York, to be held in “The Big Apple,” from June 5 to 8 this year, and disclosed that his team was committed to addressing the nagging issue of air connectivity, a complex one that has been exacerbated by the reevaluation of airline business structures and the global pilot shortage. “It would be illogical for me to promise a solution to this issue during my tenure as chairman. But what I can and will commit to is getting the players around the table to forensically examine what we need to do as a unified region to improve this scenario and start the ball rolling towards the solution.”

Watch the recording at: https://fb.watch/j7J_VHXPCs/

Download full remarks delivered by Hon. Kenneth Bryan.

Download full remarks delivered by Neil Walters.

About the Caribbean Tourism Organization

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which is headquartered in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of the region’s finest countries and territories, including Dutch-, English-, French- and Spanish-speaking, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm-weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean. Among the benefits to its members the organization provides specialized support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution, and research & information technology.

The CTO’s Headquarters is located at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados BB 22026; Tel: (246) 427-5242; E-mail: CTObarbados@caribtourism.com.

For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization, please visit www.OneCaribbean.org and follow CTO on FacebookTwitterInstagram and LinkedIn to be part of the conversation.

Posted in: 2023 News, Blog, Caribbean Recovery, Corporate News

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Six Tourism-Related Entities Receive CTO Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Awards

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (February 17, 2023) – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) on February 15, 2023, announced the winners of the Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Awards Competition 2022 at a Virtual Awards Function.

CTO has been hosting the Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Awards from 2000 to coincide with the start of the new millennium, in seeking to support and promote the sustainable development of tourism in the Caribbean.

The Awards aim to identify and showcase sustainable tourism good practices undertaken in CTO member countries in the Caribbean and is open to individual entrepreneurs, destination management organizations, tourism businesses and others, which have developed innovative tourism related products, services or experiences and in implementing these initiatives adhere to responsible and sustainable tourism practices.

“At the core of all CTO’s efforts is advocating for the sustainable and inclusive growth of Caribbean tourism, towards a viable, resilient and responsible tourism sector.  This requires careful consideration of tourism’s impact on local communities that live, work and thus support the tourism economy in our many destinations, with equal care and attention to promote conservation and responsible use of our valuable yet fragile natural resources, cultural and heritage assets,” said Neil Walters, Acting Secretary General of the CTO, delivering opening remarks at the Virtual Awards Function.  

He added that, “The Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Awards provide a platform to recognise the efforts made by the regional tourism sector in advancing the sustainable tourism development agenda and continue to be a vital part of CTO’s efforts to reward sustainability champions in Caribbean tourism. Importantly, the Awards endeavour to celebrate initiatives that enhance the Caribbean tourism value proposition, while positioning the region as the ultimate sustainable tourism zone. In this regard, we commend all 27 applicants that submitted entries for the 2022 Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Awards. You are all winners!”

The 2022 edition of the Awards comprised of five categories: Excellence in Sustainable Tourism Award, Destination Stewardship and Resilience Award, Tourism Health and Safety Award, Community-Based Tourism Award and the Tourism Education and Training Award.

The CTO assembled an Award Selection Committee comprising a cadre of regional and international experts representing various areas of the tourism sector, including tourism development specialists and practitioners, academics and regional consultants to judge submissions. Following the review by the distinguished panel of judges, the results of the Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Awards 2022 are:

For more information on the winners and runners-up please visit the CTO website: Awards & Competition Winners | OneCaribbean.org.

About the Caribbean Tourism Organization

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which is headquartered in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of the region’s finest countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish-speaking, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean. Among the benefits to its members the organisation provides specialised support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution and research & information technology.

The CTO’s Headquarters is located at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados BB 22026; Tel: (246) 427-5242; E-mail: CTObarbados@caribtourism.com.

For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization, please visit www.OneCaribbean.org and follow CTO on FacebookTwitterInstagram and LinkedIn to be part of the conversation.

Posted in: 2023 News, Blog, Sustainable Tourism Roundup

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CTO Announces the Return of Landmark Events in 2023

CURACAO (February 14, 2023) – As the tourism sector across the Caribbean registers strong post-pandemic results, the 25-member Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is resuming several hallmark activities and events this year to help strengthen the region’s position as the world’s leading warm-weather destination.

Following business meetings in Curaçao last week, where ministers, commissioners and directors of tourism and their representatives met together as well as with tourism industry stakeholders, CTO chairman Kenneth Bryan announced that 2023 will see the return of “Caribbean Week in New York” in June, the State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) in the Turks & Caicos Islands in the fall, and a conference focused on sustainable tourism development.

Bryan, who is also the Minister of Tourism and Transport for the Cayman Islands, said that the CTO will have a delegation in attendance at this week’s Global Tourism Resilience Conference in Jamaica, and will celebrate Jamaica Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett’s achievements in encouraging the United Nations to recognize February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day.

Minister Bryan also reported that CTO’s marketing committee will meet in the weeks ahead to finalize details for the upcoming calendar of events.

He disclosed that the newly invigorated CTO is focused on increasing the number of member countries and territories. “We just recently welcomed the U.S. Virgin Islands back on board, and my goal is to get more and more members since we are stronger together as a team,” he said, explaining that demonstrating to the entire region the benefits of CTO membership is paramount.

Minister Bryan and his team have been focusing their time and energies to help reshape the CTO and ensure that members get value for money. “We have some ambitious goals for the CTO over the next two years and I am confident that with a united effort we can strengthen the bread-and-butter tourism industry and improve the quality of life for our residents in this wonderful part of the world we call home,” he remarked, while showering praise on Curaçao’s tourism and economic development leaders for hosting an exceptionally productive meeting of the regional body.

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About the Caribbean Tourism Organization

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which is headquartered in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of the region’s finest countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish-speaking, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean. Among the benefits to its members the organization provides specialised support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution and research & information technology.

The CTO’s Headquarters is located at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados BB 22026; Tel: (246) 427-5242; E-mail: CTObarbados@caribtourism.com. For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization, please visit www.OneCaribbean.org and follow CTO on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to be part of the conversation.

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