The cruise industry may have suffered a serious financial squeeze and a few hard hits to its reputation in recent years, but it’s still the biggest game in town for many island nations. The industry contributes a total of $2 billion each year to the Caribbean, according to US-based Business Research and Economic Advisors (BREA).

Some might believe that, for the second time in only three years, Captain Ian Brunton has been made a scapegoat by the board of directors of a Caribbean airline company – fired as CEO of Caribbean Airlines Limited in late 2010 and, this week, he resigned as CEO of LIAT.

The recent announcement that, from October, Caribbean Airlines (CAL) will no longer receive a Trinidad and Tobago government fuel subsidy -- if it is indeed true and not a hoax as some observers have suggested -- may benefit the Guyana and Suriname aviation sectors in particular.

On 28 August, LIAT’s CEO, Ian Brunton, talked to Caribbean media and finally acknowledged in public some of the real facts behind the airline’s chaotic operations over the last three months. He also described LIAT’s worrying current financial position, in the same month that the airline has taken on a US$65 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank to fund new aircraft.

Boasting the highest waterfall in the world, nearly deserted Caribbean islands and dense jungles with ocean views, Venezuela has everything a tourist could want — except the tourists are not coming.

According to PKF Consulting USA, LLC’s (PKFC) 2013 edition of Caribbean Trends® in the Hotel Industry, the average Caribbean hotel that participated in the survey enjoyed a 10.9 percent increase in net operating income (NOI).