Media Talks on Sustainable Tourism to Start Soon in St. Lucia

The sixth Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) will soon be staged in Castries, St. Lucia, June 24 through 28 to look into contentious issues and in particular on how to push ahead sustainable tourism in the region.

At the last meeting in Barbados in December, media practitioners, tourism planners, airline executives, hoteliers, non-governmental organizations and government officials pooled their efforts to keep the goals of sustainable tourism to the fore. Diverse issues placed on the table during the four day meet, such as sex tourism, the corporate responsibility of the cruise lines, the role of the indigenous media, all generated heated debate as participants addressed the major challenges and threats facing the industry.

The St. Lucia conference follows five other regional media exchanges since October 2001 which gathered regional and international media personnel with tourism experts. The biannual meetings have been held in the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica.

Despite some divide on contentious issues, participants are single-minded in the view that tourism remained, in some instances, the only means to stimulate regional growth and, as a consequence, should be placed on the top of the region´s political agenda.

CMEx is produced by Counterpart International, Counterpart Caribbean, Caribbean Hotel Association, Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, Air Jamaica, Caribbean Hotel Association Charitable Trust (Life Needs the Caribbean), EarthVoice, Caribbean Broadcasting Union and the foundation of CNN pioneer and Sasakawa Prize laureate, Barbara Pyle (The Barbara Pyle Foundation).