CHA sets aim at 2004 FITUR after a successful Caribbean Marketplace

Wrapping up the Caribbean Marketplace –formerly known as the CHA Marketplace- with flying colors in Puerto Rico’s San Juan, the Caribbean Hotels Association (CHA) is now locking on the 2004 World Tourism Fair scheduled for later this month in Spain’s Madrid.

For the first time in history, CHA is coming to this year’s FITUR after holding its own major tradeshow, an event that experts hope it will this time around set new record highs of attendance.

The coincidence underscores the importance of the Caribbean Marketplace that came to a successful close Tuesday 13 at the Ponce de Leon Ballroom of the Wyndham Condado Plaza Hotel in the city of San Juan, following three days of red-hot trade negotiations and talks.

The 24th edition of the Caribbean Marketplace –organized by the Caribbean Hotels Association every year- gathered 1,282 attendants, including 820 salespeople and 396 purchasers who in all made 6,356 business appointments in an upbeat and businesslike atmosphere marked by a clear-cut comeback of travel inflows to the region. The Caribbean leisure industry had endured a severe setback on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but it began to rebound in 2003 and estimates point to even better outcomes for 2004.

The Caribbean Marketplace provides a perfect setting for negotiations in a friendly and businesslike atmosphere. Tour operators, travel planners, consultants, charter operators, incentive and group purchases, store managers and publicists turned out for this year’s event in San Juan.

Representatives of several international travel companies with proved potentials to sell the Caribbean as a major tourist destination in their own countries were also invited to the 2004 Caribbean Marketplace.

The year 2003 fared pretty well and 2004 is looking even better for the Caribbean travel industry, according to spokespersons from the tourist sector in the region, members of the Dominican Republic Hotels Association and officials from the Puerto Rican Tourism Company.

“If the U.S. economy continues to pick up steam and no major, unexpected geopolitical events come to pass, then I think we’ll see the corporate and incentive markets, as well as groups and conventions, returning to the Caribbean,” said Richard Cortese, regional vice president of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts for the Caribbean.

Mr. Cortese praised the good upshots chalked up during the previous tourist season and foresaw much better results in 2004 in terms of both leisure and business travel.

He explained this market segment is not making hotel bookings with so much anticipation as in the past, a situation that “keeps what’s coming out of sight.” Nevertheless –he went on to say- “I’m impressed by what I’m seeing right now. I think we’re going to have a pretty good year.”

Spokespersons for Hilton Hotels are equally upbeat about the near future for the region and trumpeted the grand opening of the Hilton Santo Domingo Hotel later this year, outfitted with the country’s biggest casino and 228 more rooms to its already astounding stock of accommodations.

For his part, Johnny Bernal, chairman of the Hotels and Restaurants Association of the Dominican Republic also extolled the good marks scored by the local leisure industry in 2003 when overall occupancy rates hovered in the double digits. Mr. Bernal is optimistic about the near future of the sector and estimates the local industry could chip in as much as 10 percent of the nation’s gross national product.

Armed with so much optimism, CHA is keeping the 2004 FITUR in the crosshairs, an event that will take place from Jan. 28 to Feb.1 at the Juan Carlos I Fairgrounds in Madrid with an expected turnout of 1,128 companies from 170 countries and other regions worldwide.