The Sixth Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development, that came to a successful close last weekend at the Havana Libre-Tryp Hotel, helped bring home the need to preserve the environment alongside the promotion of the leisure industry.

Under a slogan reading “Keeping the Right Balance: An Encounter between the Land and the Sea,” some 200 delegates –including tourism ministers and experts from the region- huddled from April 27 through 30 in Havana with the presence of Gabor Vereczi, chief of the Sustainable Tourism Development Program of the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

Following a bonanza that stretched out for nearly a month and a half with thousands of tourists flocking to Cancun and other sightseeing spots in the state –where they spent some $130 million- the local hotel sector is now hoping against hope that conventions could take up that occupancy slack of coming weeks.

After logging occupancy rates of up to 100 percent in hotels, the tourist meltdown that started last week with the beginning of the school year is now making a dent in the hotel industry.

The upcoming conclave of the Latin America Tourism Organization (COTAL) –scheduled from May 7 to 11- will be used by the Mexican travel destination of Cancun to spearhead the recovery of the South American market to its premises, a segment whose total inflow took a double-digit slide from 12 to 2 percent over the last couple of years, the event’s Organizing Committee pointed out.

The Council of Tourism of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States will gather May 6 and 7 in St. Kitts-Nevis, with the formation of an OECS Tourism Policy Framework as the key topic of the agenda.

Among other items of the agenda are to define an OECS Tourism Brand, joint approach to tourism marketing, the Secretariat´s Tourism Work programme, and an OECS approach to development of the yachting sector.

The meeting will be preceded by a one-day gathering of OECS Directors of Tourism on May 5th, which will feed into the deliberations by the Ministers.

The 24th Cuban Tourism Convention wound up successfully Wednesday evening with an award ceremony and a panoramic perspective of the Cuban tourist industry by Minister Manuel Marrero. The event gathered more than 2,000 delegates from nearly 60 countries.

The Havana Club Rum Museum of the Cuban capital, home to the world’s fourth bestselling spirit distilled by Pernod Ricard, hailed its fourth anniversary this weekend with a big bash full of liquor and good Cuban music.