Caribbean Week to Hold Caribbean Diaspora Workshop

The Caribbean Tourism Development Company (CTDC) will stage its first workshop for the Caribbean Diaspora on Thursday, June 11 at 4:30 p.m. as part of Caribbean Week in New York 2009.

The workshop, held in collaboration with the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) at The New Yorker Hotel, will seek to define the Diaspora’s perceived role as ambassadors for the region and address hot topics facing the Caribbean tourism industry.

“We have designed this workshop as a way to engage the Caribbean Diaspora, one of our most important communities of key influencers, to help grow tourism in the Caribbean region,” said Hugh Riley, interim secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and co-chief executive officer for the Caribbean Tourism Development Company.

The goal of the Diaspora Workshop is three-fold: to analyze the Caribbean tourism industry in the context of the global economic crisis while identifying short-term prospects and long-term gains; to mobilize the Caribbean Diaspora to contribute to tourism’s growth; and to share and develop the regional response that will provide a new perspective of the Caribbean tourism industry.

The workshop will also highlight steps that are being taken to encourage the Diaspora’s ongoing participation in tourism activities. Organized by CTDC, Caribbean Week in New York brings together the most influential policy makers, marketing professionals and tourism industry officials to interact and discuss both tourism and investment opportunities in the region.

It also serves to provide a taste of the Caribbean, to present vacation special offers, inspire travel and showcase the Region’s diversity to more than 10,000 attendees who participate in a number of targeted events hosted throughout the week including a Media Marketplace, Caribbean Marketing Conference and Awards Luncheon.

The Caribbean Tourism Development Company (CTDC) is a marketing and business development unit, owned equally by the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). Its mission is to own, promote, protect, advance and enhance the Caribbean brand.

The CTDC combines the resources of the Caribbean region’s destinations, accommodations and service providers to create a viable, cohesive, business unit that is able to identify commercial opportunities and allow the members of CHTA and CTO to benefit collectively from those opportunities in ways that individually they could not. In all its endeavors the company engages only in activities that honor the Caribbean brand.