The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) recently concluded the 30th edition of Caribbean Travel Marketplace, held January 22-24 at the expansive Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. Long regarded as the Caribbean region’s most influential annual meeting of public and private sector tourism stakeholders this year’s gathering attracted a record number of government ministers responsible for tourism on their respective islands. In a memorable and rousing opening ceremony, highlighted by a truly Bahamian “junkanoo show of colors”,  the Rt. Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham, Prime Minister of the Bahamas, welcomed nearly 1,200 delegates to Caribbean Travel Marketplace 2012. Indicating a positive trend for Caribbean tourism the 140 buyer companies in attendance, representing 18 countries, was a 15% increase over 2011 and the most since 2008.  Pictured above from left to right are  Hon. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, Bahamas Minister of Tourism,  Josef Forstmayr, President of CHTA, and the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham,  Prime Minister, of the Bahamas.

In his opening remarks Ingraham said “It is my great pleasure to welcome you back to The Bahamas, and to Nassau and Paradise Island.  I trust that by now my greeting is simply the formal expression of the warm reception and careful attention you have already experienced. We are always happy to embrace opportunities that gather colleagues and partners from throughout the region and around the world in The Bahamas. 2012 is a year of notable anniversaries for the tourism sector. It is the 50th anniversary of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, and I congratulate you as you celebrate this significant milestone.  Our Bahamas Hotel Association, soon to be formally named the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association, is one of the founding members of the original Caribbean Hotel Association.  It celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.”  Striking an optimistic tone he further added “We begin 2012 with the hope that this year will mark a distinct point of recovery and return to sustained growth for tourism in our region. We believe that early signs of improvement are evident. In The Bahamas, we saw a robust uptick in arrivals since November last.  By a number of measures, this past December was particularly good for the 14 major Nassau and Paradise Island hotels. For the second year in a row since the Great Recession room occupancies, average daily rates and room rates were up last year.  Perhaps most encouraging has been that visitors are spending longer periods with us and reporting improved levels of customer satisfaction.”

In concluding his term as CHTA President Josef Forstmayr reminded delegates that “Caribbean Travel Marketplace is as strong as ever and registration numbers compared to last year are very encouraging”, adding “this marks the 30th consecutive year that CHTA has held the event. It remains the region’s most important and largest marketing convention and the single most important CHTA benefit for our hotel members. You may have noted that I referred to Marketplace as Caribbean Travel Marketplace – this is the new name for the event as it better describes the function of Marketplace – similar to CHTA having added the ‘T’ for Tourism to its name. Of course those that have been attending the event for 30 years still call the event simply “CHA”.

Caribbean Travel Marketplace 2012 was organized and hosted by, The Minister of Tourism for The Islands of the Bahamas, The Paradise Island Promotion Board, The Bahamas Hotel Association, MasterCard International, Virgin Holidays, and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.

With the Caribbean being the most dependent tourism region in the world, and home to 7 of the 10 most tourism dependent countries in the world according to World Tourism Organization statistics, CHTA has a full agenda for 2012 including; increased tourism advocacy through a program called Tourism is Key and supporting website www.Tourismiskey.com, increased regional marketing efforts – including the hiring of a new CMO and re-design of www.caribbeantravel.com, overturning the United Kingdom’s unfair Air Passenger Duty that has been directly attributed to a decline of over 270,000 U.K. travelers since 2009, and several events including Caribbean Investment Conference in San Juan April 24-26, CHTA 50th Anniversary in Jamaica in June, Taste of the Caribbean in Miami June 20-25, plus the addition of the newly named Boutique and Intimate Hotel Conference in October. The venue and date TBD. Caribbean Travel Marketplace 2013 is scheduled to be held next January in Cancun, Mexico.

Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, www.caribbeanhotelandtourism.com