ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Antigua and Barbuda is set to welcome top tourism, sports and media and development leaders, including Chris Dehring, Managing Director and CEO of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc., when Counterpart International’s Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism meeting (CMExPress), opens at Sandals Antigua on Tuesday, June 14.
The leading Caribbean architect of Cricket World Cup 2007 will share the platform with experts in the field of sports, tourism and natural disaster management, including hotelier and Cricket World Cup Director Allen Chastanet, Emmy-award winning broadcast journalists Doug Hoyte and Andria Hall, Secretary General of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union Patrick Cozier, Jennifer Dohrmann-Alpert of the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) and Antigua-based tourism consultant Cynthia Simon.
President Bill Clinton’s former Chief of Staff when he was Governor of Arkansas, Gloria Cabe, who is now working with James Lee Witt Associates in Washington, D.C., Don Werdekker of the Curaçao Hospitality and Tourism Association, Edwin Lightbourne of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, and Ambrose Morris of the Bahamas Tourist Office in Canada will attend as observers. At the St. John’s meeting, media representatives will join the public and private sector to examine the state of the region’s preparations for Cricket World Cup 2007, to be held in the Caribbean for the first time, as well as regional preparations for the impending hurricane season.
“We have been bowled over by the quality of responses for our third CMExPress one-day event,” said Dr. Basil Springer, Chairman of Counterpart Caribbean, who anticipated another exciting session. He encouraged Antiguans and Barbudans to register early for the meeting and reminded the industry of CMEx’s role in raising the profile of sustainable development issues.
A recent study by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) on the impact of Travel and Tourism on Jobs and the Economy in the Caribbean, identified the critical need for awareness building of the industry’s contribution to the regional, national and local economies among civil society and government officials so as to help raise the level of support for the industry. Additionally, WTTC highlighted the vital necessity to focus media attention on industry issues so that the economic and social benefits that Travel and Tourism bring to local communities could be widely reinforced.
