Months of arduous training and live rehearsals are now culminating for the members of 16 national culinary teams from across the region, who traveled this week to Miami, Florida, to compete in the annual culinary competition and all-Caribbean food and beverage showcase, Taste of the Caribbean 2006. The event, presented by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) and Bahama Breeze, is now taking place at the Hyatt Regency Miami, and is expected to come to a close on Wednesday.

FreemanGroup has announced that the official launch of FreemanGroup Destinations (FG Destinations) in the Caribbean will take place at the Caribbean Hospitality Industry Conference (CHIC), in Miami, on June 26. The Caribbean has been a primary market of FreemanGroup over the past twenty years.

Aruba is gearing up to host an extraordinary lineup for this year´s Fifth Annual Aruba Music Festival, featuring rock legends, Styx (October 6) and Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, Lionel Richie (October 7). For two days, sunbathers will not only get the opportunity to bask in the near-perfect weather, enjoy an endless roster of fun to-dos, and meet some of the friendliest people in the Caribbean, but also rock out to Styx and groove to unforgettable sounds from Lionel Richie.

Hundreds of airline CEOs and executives who gathered here heard International Air Transport Association director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani declare this a year of “cautious optimism” for the global aviation industry, thanks to strong economies, high demand for air travel, higher fares and increases in revenue that have been doubling the historical average. But those executives also heard from oil company executives who told them jet fuel prices might not begin to significantly improve until 2010 –they may first get worse- and from a renowned investor who predicted that 2006 might be “as good as it gets” for the airline industry.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization´s annual Caribbean Week celebrations, meetings, and activities got underway in New York on June 10 without the presence and input of Pamela Richards, the CTO chairwoman as well as commissioner of tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to reports published in the St. Croix Avis, the local newspaper on St. Croix, Charles Turnbull, governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, did not approve Richards´ request to travel to New York for Caribbean Week.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization will honor distinguished sons and daughters of the Caribbean during the annual fundraising event for the CTO Foundation at the Governments of the Caribbean State Ball at the Waldorf Astoria. Among the honorees will be a senior public servant, a carnival organizer, a filmmaker and a Caribbean band.