Caribbean Tourism Reaches Out to Corporate Europe

The Caribbean travel industry is ready to cash in on the sweet aftertaste left by the meeting on Professional Roles and Opportunities for Investment in Tourism (PROFIT 2004) that recently came to a close in Jamaica’s Montego Bay.

With this view in mind and bent on fostering foreign investment in the Caribbean leisure industry, the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) signed an agreement with the United Kingdom’s Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), with the French Agency for International Development of Enterprises (UBIFRANCE), and the Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX).

The five-year accord calls on cooperation among the four institutions in an effort to promote the Caribbean tourist sector through alliances and mergers for heavier investment in their respective countries.

The cooperation agreement embraces such key areas as hotel and resort management, maintenance, supplies, scenery gardening, sports venues and facilities, cultural centers, entertainment spots, healthcare resorts, local transportation and general infrastructure. At the same time, all parties will collaborate in promotional and advertisement activities all across Europe.

The combined efforts of ICEX, FTO, UBIFRANCE and CHA will be the follow-up to an initiative proposed by PROFIT that seeks to spur up the participation of European investors and developers at the upcoming Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference scheduled from May 9 through 11, 2005 in Barbados.

The PROFIT meeting –held from October 5 to 8 in Jamaica- assessed over a hundred draft projects canvassing the entire Caribbean Basin in the investment and service-providing areas.