Journalists from all over the Caribbean are gathering in Jamaica for an environmental journalism workshop in Kingston, Jamaica, that teed off on Monday, May 8. The four-day program, organized by the Barbados-based Caribbean Regional Environmental Program (CREP), featured in-depth, hands-on reporting on community environmental issues, with print journalists also being exposed to photography.

A Caribbean environmental advocate wants national hotel associations across the region to help small hotel managers understand the importance of investing in low cost energy-saving environmental technologies. Jamaican Hugh Cresser, who managed the recently expired Environment Audits for Sustainable Tourism (EAST) USAID-funded project in Jamaica for the past eight years, told the 8th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development (STC-8) in Puerto Rico that national hotel and tourism associations should help their members implement programs that are both profitable and sustainable.

For the first time, the demand for tickets to attend next year´s World Cricket Cup in the Caribbean can be quantified and the numbers are “already flattering”. Speaking mere hours after the launch of the tournament´s Public Ticketing Program, ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc. Commercial Manager Stephen Price revealed that the website (www.cricketworldcup.com) on which fans can apply for tickets was “flooded with applications from the second it opened” last night.

The International Travel Partners Conference (ITPC) brought top buyers and sellers to Grand Bahama Island. The conference, which came to a close on May 3 in Grand Bahama, was held at Westin & Sheraton at Our Lucaya Resort in Grand Bahama.

The heart and soul of the Caribbean will touch New York City as never before when some of the region´s favorite performers convey the immortal spiritual psyche of Caribbean people at a gospel concert on June 11, 2006. The inaugural Caribbean Gospelfest will be one of the highlights of Caribbean Week in New York 2006, which takes place from June 11-17.

The 8th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development, which took place from April 24 to 29 at the Condado Plaza Hotel & Casino in San Juan for 170 delegates from around the Caribbean, took special aim at disaster management and prevention. Although the Caribbean is highly vulnerable to tsunamis, the region has begun working on a tsunami readiness plan.