POINTE BLANCHE:--- President of the FCCA Michelle Paige chaired the discussions among Ministers and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the various Caribbean Islands that are currently attending the 21st FCCA Annual Conference and Tradeshow which is being hosted by St. Maarten. Among the delegates was the Vice President of Honduras Ricardo Antonio Alvarez Arias.
St. Maarten's Minister of Tourism Ted Richardson opened the workshop/discussion as he sat next to the President of the FCCA Michel Paige. Delegates and those that attended and participated in the discussion were expecting to hear Minister Richardson sell St. Maarten passionately and to emphasize on how St. Maarten intends to broaden and better its tourism market, instead the Minister chose to open the workshop and then play a pre-recorded tape entitled the St. Maarten's Roadmap for the Tourism Industry. The Minister's poor choice obviously left many persons shocked and disappointed as one would think that the Minister had background information on the Tourism Industry on St. Maarten and most importantly he has an idea as to where the island intends to take tourism in the coming years. Obviously St. Maarten is looking at diversifying its tourism industry with medical tourism, eco-tourism and agri-tourism.
Honduras Vice President Ricardo Alverez who took up office in his country only seven months ago informed the delegates about Honduras. He said it's the FCCA who helped Honduras by promoting their island as a new destination. He said Honduras is a secure clean place to visit while its nationals open their arms to embrace their visitors. Alvarez said just some months ago Honduras was hit with an incident which could have been the end for their country and people but instead of letting go, the people and government got together and strategize in making their country safer with two ports and its also one of the safest islands to visit, he said on October 15th Honduras will be opening its third port in Mainland while they have intentions of building three other ports in their country. Alvarez said they intend to introduce a train service which would take their visitors to different sites in less than two hours, this he said is to ensure that their visitors see all that is available in Honduras, their intention is to make Honduras the best cruise destination in the world, Alvarez said.
He said the President of Honduras declared to its people that tourism is their national priority therefore every part of the country will apply the same decision to enhance security, he further stated that the ideas used was obtained from the FCCA and CTO (Caribbean Tourism Organization). Alvarez confirmed that his country has decided to make tourism their main industry and attending the 21st Annual Conference and Tradeshow here on St. Maarten is a confirmation that they mean business when it comes to developing Honduras through tourism.
In responding to Alvarez statements Michelle Paige said bad things happen everywhere and so does tragedy but the most important thing is how the countries handle these incidents. She said Honduras did not hide from their problems instead they rallied around each other and worked together to deal with the situation they had before them, doing that helped them in developing their country and even showcased their country.
A statement that was read on Tuesday night was read by one Adam, who quoted statements from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). Immediately after that the chairman of the CTO the Minister of Tourism of Barbados Ricard Sealy picked up on the statements made by the organization on enhancing ones economy. Sealy mandated the CTO to ensure that time bounds are inserted in their partnership relations. He said whatever they set out to do must include their next steps as well as achievable goals. He further stated that the CTO owns a hotel called the CTDC which is the marketing entity for the Caribbean.
The workshop among the Ministers and CEO lead off on topics related to what the CTO has set as their guidelines in moving forward.
Click here to view photos of the second day of the 21st Annual FCCA Conference and Tradeshow.
