Puerto Rico to Hold 2006 Edition of the Caribbean Marketplace

The Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) has once again palm-picked Puerto Rico´s San Juan as the venue of choice for the 2006 Caribbean Marketplace, the region´s biggest annual travel and tourism trade event, to be held in January next year.

Held every year in January, the Caribbean Marketplace sets the tone for travel packaging in the region and is penciled in by many as the Caribbean´s most significant tourism marketing event of the year.

During a visit to Puerto Rico earlier this month, CHA Director-General Alec Sanguinetti inspected the new Puerto Rico Convention Center (PRCC) and was positively impressed with the facility. “This venue will be a formidable competitor with convention facilities in Orlando (Florida) and elsewhere in the southern U.S."

CHA President Berthia Parle confirmed the CHA´s choice to hold the event on the island in a meeting in Bridgetown, Barbados, with Puerto Rico Tourism Company Deputy Executive Director Mickey J. Espada and Financial Incentives Program Director Yarisa Diaz Sanchez.

Ms. Parle told them, "We [CHA] are looking forward to a successful Marketplace 2006 in San Juan because of the excellent support we have always received from the government of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association."

The 2006 CHA Marketplace would be the third the regional hotel association holds on the island, which also was the site of both the 2003 and 2004 CHA Marketplace.