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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nov 01 2015 – Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) Richard Sealy has called on tourism industry stakeholders to step up efforts to make the Caribbean the world’s most desirable destination year would.
In a message to mark World Tourism Month Sealy cited the encouraging news that the region continues to perform well, attracting visitors at a greater rate during the first half of the year than any other region in the world, shared at the recent State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC).
It was noted that during that period, the Caribbean outpaced the global average by 1.7 percent and was the only region to register growth of five percent.
“While this is encouraging, we ought not to be complacent for varying reasons. We ought not to be satisfied because growth in the second quarter slowed somewhat to 4.9 percent, compared to the six percent growth experienced during the first quarter,” Sealy, who is also Tourism Minister of Barbados, said.
“We ought not to be satisfied because, despite outpacing the rest of the world, our share of the world market is approximately 2.8 percent. We cannot be satisfied because there is still so much left to be done in the areas of product development, the facilitation of travel to and through the Caribbean, taxes, partnerships, and innovation in order to be competitive. We certainly cannot be satisfied until we become the world’s most desirable year round, warm weather destination and until every citizen of the Caribbean is positioned to benefit from tourism,” Sealy added.
Caribbean Tourism Month is observed every November.
