Financial crisis hits Caribbean tourism planners

A report in the online publication Travel Weekly (travelweekly.com) Tuesday says organizers have canceled the 31st Caribbean Tourism Conference (CTC) in Antigua, which was scheduled to be held in October.

It quoted Antigua's tourism minister John Maginley as saying the move is because of the global financial crisis. “Holding this conference, in light of today’s global climate, would have been expensive and difficult,” it attributed to Maginley, who is also chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

Maginley explained that in the present economic environment it would difficult to have the substantial amount of money to mount the conference. He said the 2010 event would remain on the agenda .

The conference is still scheduled for 2010 and hopes that Antigua would be able to host it. It's the second year in a row that the event has been canceled.

The 2008 CTC was shelved because officials said it was too close to the first annual Caribbean Tourism Summit in Washington, the report aid, adding that the Washington event dealt with the same issues on the CTC agenda and included many of the people who would have participated in the CTC conference.

The 2009 summit in Washington took place last week. The two-day event gave tourism ministers an opportunity to meet Congressional representatives of the Black Caucus, State Department officials and representatives of the departments of commerce, energy and homeland security.

Issues discussed covered included:

• pre-clearance facilities in Caribbean destinations served by nonstop flights from the U.S.
• expansion of duty-free allowances
• airlift from the U.S. to the Caribbean region.