BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – As the Caribbean prepares to host this month’s ICC Cricket World Cup, Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace is encouraging the region to adopt an innovative approach to marketing and delivering services to visitors.
Speaking ahead of the official matches, the leading tourism executive said “the Caribbean is the world’s most tourism dependent region, so we must become the world’s most innovative at tourism. We need to move from a position of follower to leader in global tourism; to do this, we need to get our best and brightest involved,” he said.
Quality service, said Vanderpool-Wallace who hails from the Bahamas, is anticipating the needs of customers and providing those needs before they ask for them, adding “we therefore need to get people thinking about what is the right thing that needs to be done and to get them doing it. We should all want to see the Caribbean become the ‘wow factor’ all over the world, and we have a major opportunity over 47 days of cricket.”
To sharpen skills and remain competitive, Vanderpool-Wallace encouraged his member governments to both participate and support youth and media participation at the upcoming editions of Counterpart International’s Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), which helps shape the outlook of the media and hospitality industry on sustainable tourism development through interactive and stimulating dialogue. “Our members ought to have a presence at these meetings, and they should support, both morally and financially, youth and media participation,” he said.
The 10th full edition of CMEx is set for San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 17-21, 2007. Media and tourism delegates from across the region, North America and Europe will examine the theme “Enhancing Culture and Protecting Ecology through Tourism,” exploring topics such as the impact of global warming on small island developing states; protecting and promoting Caribbean cultural tradition; the impact of HIV/AIDS on Caribbean culture; aerial highways; the voice of the young people; energy conservation and recycling; multi-destination tourism; and crossing the old Colonial boundaries to build a multilingual Caribbean culture.
“CMEx is a one-of-a-kind professional development opportunity for the Caribbean hospitality industry to communicate better and establish a more effective working relationship with the media. As tourism professionals, we must learn to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the media, to enable them to report accurately and in depth,” said Lorraine Ortiz-Valcárcel, Communications Director of the Caribbean Hotel Association.
“The dynamics of CMEx are quite unique; it’s a think tank, a discovery zone. It is paving the way for a new generation of Caribbean media professionals with a broader understanding of the breadth and depth of Caribbean tourism. They in turn are becoming catalysts for a more discerning community – and an industry more in tune with their stakeholders,” she said.
