Q & A with Jean Holder, Former Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and currently chairman of LIAT airline
Q.- Following your long tenure at the helm of CTO, when did you actually join LIAT?
A.- I left CTO at the end of 2004 and commenced here (at LIAT). As a matter of fact, I was on leave before I left CTO and I actually started here in August 2004, so it’s just three years that have gone by.
Q.- What new investment projects are you considering for the Caribbean region?
A.- At the moment we have under construction a new Breezes in Panama, about an hour from Panama City in an area called Playa Blanca. We’ve completed a major renovation of 300 to 400 rooms at the Breezes Bahamas, which included new bathrooms, flat-screen TVs, new sliding doors, new furniture.
Grupo Gira is currently working on a concept of customized tourism that meets the needs of its clientele and moves travelers to a number of destinations across Cuba, chiefly those spots where the island nation’s nature and history are at their best. In this exclusive interview with Caribbean News Digital, both execs bear this out.
Up to the month of August, Costa Rica’s travel industry has climbed a staggering 9.5 percent, way above the estimated 5 percent increase the UNWTO has predicted for the Central American nation this year. This country continues to put the smart money on the sector’s sustainable development and, as all of the region, strives in a head-on battle against sexual tourism.
Q & A with Carlos Fonseca, General Manager of the Costa Rica Natural Travel and Deputy President of the Central American Tour Operators Organization
The Central American Tour Operators Organization (CTO) is a relatively young association that gathers a group of companies from the region’s countries and moves some 100 tourists a month to the alternative segments of historical and cultural travel, as well as ecotourism -a growing market that’s all the rage in Costa Rica. Caribbean News Digital talked exclusively with one of CTO’s top-brass execs.
As a follow-up to the opinions on the Central America Travel Market that we posted in the Outlook section on Monday, Caribbean News Digital is bringing on this exclusive interview with Honduran tourism minister Ricardo Martinez, who voiced some view of his own about this event held in Costa Rica.