Caribbean Travel Marketplace Kicks Off in Puerto Rico

The Caribbean Travel Marketplace, an event organized by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), returns to its in-person version starting Monday, bringing together buyers and suppliers from around the world at the San Juan Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

The event serves as a reminder of the Caribbean's broad-based tourism rebound since the Covid-19 pandemic hit back in late 2019, with many destinations in the region approaching or surpassing their record highs. 

It's also a show of support for Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from the scourge of Hurricane Fiona and for which the event is a much-needed boost of media hype and tourism-related revenue. 

Penciled in as the largest tourism marketing event in the region, the Caribbean Travel Marketplace welcomes nearly 1,200 delegates to Puerto Rico's San Juan this week. 

In charge of opening Monday's congress was Vanessa Ledesma, CEO of the CHTA, who welcomed guests to the "Island of Enchantment" and gave some initial insights into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the sector, with ideas such as the importance of connectivity already coming to the fore.

The CEO and president of the World Travel & Tourism Council, Julia Simpson, took over, highlighting first of all the rapid recovery of the Caribbean tourism market, and then pointing out the challenges (improving connectivity, dealing with rising airfares, combating the degradation of nature) and opportunities (more flexible visas, supporting the local market, public-private partnerships) that plague the sector.

For her part, Nicola Madden-Greig, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, reviewed some of the data that support the recovery of tourism in the Caribbean. One of those figures is the creation of 311,000 jobs in 2021 in the region, 15.2% more than in 2020, and of which 13.4% belongs to the travel industry.

During this first day of events there was also time to address the importance of the public-private connection for the development of the sector, in a presentation in which Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism of Jamaica, Kenneth Bryan, Minister of Tourism and Transport of the Cayman Islands, Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico, Ernest Hilaire, Minister of Tourism, Investment, Creative Industry, Culture and Information of Saint Lucia, Adam Stewart, CEO of Sandals Resorts International and president of Sandals Foundation, took part.

Among the conclusions reached, some of the main ones are the importance of creating a Caribbean product that brings together the best of everything that unites the countries of the region. The work of the private sector should be focused on vindicating the importance of human capital and bringing the benefits of the country to the people themselves, while the public sector should focus on recognizing the benefits of tourism for the entire country and working on those expansive benefits.