Caribbean Tourism Leaders to Take Part in Washington Think Tank

Leaders from the Caribbean tourism industry will participate in a high-level tourism “think tank” session on Monday, June 8, while attending the Second Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit (ACTS) in Washington, DC. Designed to be a strategic brainstorm session, the think tank is part of the overall goal of ACTS to provide innovative and creative approaches to the current challenges facing tourism.

Interim Secretary General of Caribbean Tourism Development Company, Hugh Riley
The think tank will be moderated by Adam Sacks, principal of Tourism Economics, a top industry consulting company that provides in-depth analysis of the tourism industry. Expected participants in the session include Ministers of Tourism, representatives of the hotel and airline industries, US publishing partners and financial services members, tourism industry partners and senior representatives of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA).

According to Hugh Riley, interim secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and co-chief operating officer for the Caribbean Tourism Development Company (CTDC), the session has the potential to be one of the most important events on the Caribbean calendar this year.

“This event is absolutely crucial to our region’s success,” said Riley. “It provides a rare opportunity to roll up our sleeves with some of the best and brightest of our industry and take a good, hard look at the challenges we face as we work to find the solutions that will help the Caribbean continue to be the crown jewel of worldwide tourism.”

ACTS itself is a business-focused summit organized by the CTDC, the marketing and business development unit owned equally by the CHTA and CTO. It will include meetings on Capitol Hill as well as internal meetings between CTO and CHTA officials attended by delegates from the Caribbean region.

ACTS provides a major forum in which to focus on the economic future of the Caribbean by engaging political leaders, financial decision-makers and investors. One of its primary objectives is to bring the services industry in the Region, of which tourism is a part, to the forefront of development discussions.