The National Solid Waste Management Authority might have to rethink its tipping fee requirement for visiting ships in light of the country’s ratification of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Pollution Convention (MARPOL) which among other things, works to prevent waste disposal in the Caribbean Sea.

World Tourism Day this year celebrated the role of women and next month’s Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) in St. Lucia features some of the hemisphere’s top female tourism and communications experts, the organizers said.

Aruba will welcome the prestigious annual Liberty Travel Managers Conference. This significant event brings together over 200 Liberty Travel store managers, district store managers (DSMs) and senior company executives for three days of informational conferences, site inspections, hotel and resort presentations, cocktail parties, gala dinners and more.

A year from now, in January 2009, St. Lucia will host one of the Caribbean’s biggest tourism conventions, Caribbean Marketplace, presented by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA).

The General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) -held every other year- kicked off last week in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia at a time when the world travel industry is down to the yearend wire with a record high 900 million tourist arrivals around the globe.

Tourism interests in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean will have an opportunity next week to get involved in the formulation of the final draft of a sustainable tourism policy for the region.