French Caribbean destination of St. Martin to host first ever State of the Industry Conference

MARIGOT, St. Martin – The French Caribbean destination of St. Martin will make history when it hosts the first ever State of the Industry conference organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) in September.

President of the St. Martin Tourism Authority, Ida Zin-Ka-Ieu, and the CTO secretary general, Hugh Riley, made the announcement here at a joint news conference which was also attended by Edward Dest, the marketing manager of Dutch St. Maarten’s tourism bureau and Lisa Noel, the product development assistant, also of Dutch St. Maarten.

“The Caribbean Tourism Organization is thrilled that St. Martin has taken this opportunity to demonstrate its creativity to the Caribbean and the world by hosting our first ever State of the Industry conference,” said Mr. Riley. “We are excited about the event and we are confident that St. Martin will make itself and the Caribbean proud.”

“This is a very important conference will deals with a number of issues that are relevant to St. Martin and the Caribbean tourism sector and we are very pleased that the CTO has chosen St. Martin to host this historic event,” added Ms. Zin-Ka-Ieu.

The September 14-17 conference will look at the current state of the Caribbean tourism industry and how to deal with issues that impact on the sector, with a view to building for the future. This conference will also see the return of the Tourism Youth Congress at which Caribbean youth will debate issues of concern to the tourism industry.