STC Bringing Even More Synergy between CTO, ACS

This May will see Barbados hosting the Sustainable Tourism Conference (STC), organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). There is growing interest in the STC, as its importance in promoting and maintaining tourism and its environmental impact on the islands becomes a Caribbean priority. Delegates on this beautiful Island will be exposed to international leaders in their fields who will share their ideas and experiences and practical ways of utilizing them.

This 11th annual conference (STC-11) will be held from May 9-12, 2010 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, and is being organized in collaboration with the Barbados Ministry of Tourism, and for the first time in several years will bring even more synergy between the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), and the CTO.

The annual STC is part of the informational dissemination and regional awareness component of CTO’s strategy for sustainable tourism, but how did it start? Who were the first ones that designed it? The history of the STC is fascinating and as attending members of the press, we invite you to read about its past, present and future in the upcoming days.

“The STC in Barbados will be a world class one, as we are diligently working to find the very best people to address the different elements of Sustainable Tourism. Our Sustainable Tourism Product Specialist Gail Henry is committed to making this a hands-on conference, something that the delegates can take away and implement almost immediately”, said Sylma Brown Bramble, Deputy Director of CTO in New York.

Now we are seeing a new phase on the synergy between ACS and CTO since the STC will be held in Barbados, which is a member of ACS. In previous years CTO could not get support for ACS due to its being held in a non-member country.

Even though there is no official word as yet, it appears that something is cooking in the kitchen: “When the conferences were held in countries that held membership in both CTO and ACS, we collaborated on the production of the Conference and that the absence of ACS has been as a result of the conference not being held in an ACS member country. The situation has changed again with Barbados being a member of both. I am aware that Gail has been speaking with ACS to determine their level of participation, but those discussions are taking place from Headquarters”, said Mrs. Brown-Bramble.