subject: Luxury Caribbean Holidays On The Rise Following Economic Slump [print this page] Despite the worldwide economic slump it has been reported by Ricky Skerritt, chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) that luxury holidays to the Caribbean have been steadily increasing in popularity among travellers from all corners of the world.
Mr Skerritt also confirmed that non-luxury leisure travel to the Caribbean was, in general, reporting significant gains this year. He made this statements when addressing delegates at the first CTO-organised State of the Industry Conference which took place in Le Domaine hotel, in the French Caribbean island of St Martin.
According to him "year-over-year visitor arrivals to the Caribbean reflect a solid across-the-board increase".
But despite the success of Caribbean holidays against the harsh economic climate, he also emphasised on the fact that the Caribbean is still facing many challenges from the aftermath effects of the global economic recession.
Visitor numbers are up but per-visitor expenditures are down, the length of stay is shrinking, and to prosper we must provide value for travel, affordable airlift and cost-effective marketing strategies, he explained to the audience attending the event.
He went on to add how the conference's theme, Winning in a Competitive Environment, was very accurate and appropriate, given the region is competing more and more with other destinations around the world.
British Airways chief executive Keith Williams had earlier outlined one of the major concerns facing the Caribbean holidays market, blaming Air Passenger Duty in the United Kingdom for the decision to cut services to the region.
Organised in collaboration with the St Martin Tourist Office, The State of the Industry Conference aims to gather tourism interests from the public and private travel sectors in order to tackle a number of critical issues including overcoming the hurdles to intra-regional travel, how to use limited resources to the greatest advantage, how to influence the affluent luxury travellers, and how to remain truly competitive in today's tough travel market.
Communication Means Business, one of the event's main sessions, will be paying specific attention to the value of clear, accurate communication and spread of information around the world, using a wide and varied array of global media channels on a worldwide scale.
This Caribbean travel event builds on the success of the Leadership Strategy Conference that was held in Barbados last year, and satisfies a growing need felt among regional members, including travel agent partners, for such a gathering, annually.
All general conference sessions this year were preceded by a series of meetings held on 14th and 15th September, which gathered tourism ministers, directors of tourism, commissioners and private sector tourism partners.
by: Susan Crown
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