The Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) says it will host a panel discussion on whether marijuana and or medicinal plants offer the Caribbean a new path to wellness.
The CTO said that the November 1 online panel discussion will launch the series of activities marking Tourism Month in November.
It said that Bryanna Hylton, the Westwood High School, Jamaica student, who won this year’s CTO Tourism Youth Congress, will participate in the discussion.
The other panellists include CTO Secretary General, Hugh Riley; Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to Ethiopia and member of the Caribbean Community’s Commission on marijuana L. Franklin “Ras Franki” Francis; the President of the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association, Jerry Rappaport, Canadian journalist Adrian Brijbassi and Barbadian pollster Peter Wickham.
The hour-long discussion, which begins at 11 a.m. Eastern Caribbean Time can be viewed on the CTO’s Facebook page.
Hylton was one of a record 18 secondary school students who participated in the Youth Congress at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference in the Bahamas earlier this month.
The CTO said her presentations focused on designing and creating a new wellness and rejuvenation tourism product or service offering, which has a Caribbean flair, feel and/or touch. She emerged winner ahead of St. Maarten’s Kiara Meyers, who placed second, and Caroline Pain of Martinique, who was third.
The CTO said that the online panel discussion is one of a number of activities it is planning in observance of Caribbean Tourism Month, “a period during which attention is placed on the region’s most important attribute, its people, as well as the product, profile and partnerships.”
It said the other activities will include a month-long contest to determine the Caribbean wellness ambassador, a tweet chat on November 19 involving Riley and Caribbean and international students as well as a social extravaganza a day later allowing for CTO member countries to showcase their tourism wellness offerings on Facebook Live.
“CTO member countries will also organise activities in observance of Caribbean Tourism Month, which is meant to provide an opportunity for everyone in the industry to open their doors to citizens and to help them understand and appreciate tourism, to help them feel that they too are part of the industry, and they have a role to play in its growth and development,” the CTO added.
