BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Bermuda will host the next Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Sustainable Tourism Conference in 2011, the CTO has announced.
In a symbolic passing of the “baton”, Bermuda’s Junior Tourism Minister Marc Bean received the CTO Sustainable Tourism Mahogany Scroll from the Permanent Secretary in the Barbados Ministry of Tourism, Andrew Cox, confirming Hamilton as host of the 12th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development (STC-12).
“We are honoured to host STC-12 in Bermuda,” said Sen. Bean at a news conference later. “We look forward to an action-based programme that builds on the recommendations coming out of STC-11.”
The CTO – the organiser of the conference – and the Bermuda government have already begun discussion on a date, which is expected to be announced soon. Work is also expected to begin on a programme shortly.
The announcement of Bermuda as host came at the end of STC-11 which ran from May 9-12 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre here. Over 250 delegates – including tourism industry officials and the media – participated in a series of seminars, workshops and study tourism aimed at setting the foundation on which to build a world class sustainable tourism product in the region.
The conference ended with a call to action by the CTO Secretary General, Hugh Riley. Mr. Riley called on delegates attending the conference, as well as citizens of the Caribbean, to take action to preserve the regions assets and to sustain the tourism industry.
The CTO secretary general said the conference achieved two of its immediate goals – presenting information and getting delegates to pay attention – but the region’s tourism development agency was counting on everyone to help it achieve the third goal.
“We thought that it should be meaningful enough to make a connection between real world matters and people’s concerns about being responsible and about preservation of our assets in the Caribbean. The three messages of STC-11 are, here are the facts; pay some attention and take some action,” Mr. Riley said. “We want delegates to leave with knowledge of one action that they will take to change their behaviour.”
The 11th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development was organized by the CTO in collaboration with the Barbados Ministry of Tourism.
