CHTA to host Talks on intra-Caribbean travel
4 April 2022
MIAMI, Apr 4, CMC – The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) says it will later this week host a two day event allowing for regional public and private sector stakeholders to discuss intra-Caribbean travel.
The CHTA said that while international travel into the Caribbean begins to approach pre-pandemic levels, travel within the region has only recovered to an estimated 30 per cent of 2019 arrivals.
“The ramifications of this drop in intra-regional travel are broad, affecting all destinations at all levels, as it impacts business, leisure and personal travel for sports, festivals, events, religious, family and other meetings and gatherings.
“For some destinations, accommodation providers and other tourism businesses, intra-regional travel accounts for a significant portion of their revenue,” said CHTA President, Nicola Madden-Greig said.
The CHTA said that the event to be held under the theme “Rebuilding Intra-Caribbean Travel” will take place on Wednesday and Thursday featuring distinguished public and private sector leaders and industry experts.
It said United States Virgin Islands Governor, Albert Bryan Jr, will participate in Wednesday’ s session that will present a profile of the intra-Caribbean traveller and look at the obstacles and opportunities for stimulating the recovery of intra-regional travel.
The session will also feature Neil Waters, the acting Secretary General of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization and Jorge Hernandez, the chief executive officer of Aerostar Airport Holdings, which operates and manages the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico on behalf of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority.
“Intra-regional travel has taken a massive hit during the pandemic, and it’s been slower to rebound than international travel, “said Madden-Greig, who will moderate the first session on Wednesday.
“We want to examine how the region can recoup over a billion US dollars of lost revenue in this area and recover better than ever.”
Thursday’s session will provide hotels and tourism-related businesses as well as destinations with insights and success stories on restoring and attracting the high potential intra-Caribbean travel market.
It will be moderated by CHTA’s acting Director General, Vanessa Ledesma, with the panelists include Alicia Cabrera, executive manager, Marketing & Loyalty Programmes at Caribbean Airlines; Corey Garrett, Director for the Caribbean & Latin America at Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc and Christopher Gustave, the marketing manager Caribbean, Sports & Events with the St. Lucia Tourism Authority.