PALM BEACH, Aruba
-- Caribbean tourism officials unveiled a new marketing and
branding entity at the 28th annual Caribbean Hotel Association
Marketplace here, a private, for-profit entity, designed to promote
and protect the Caribbean brand, create new marketing synergies and
create new economic opportunities.
Called the
Caribbean Tourism Development Co., the new entity is jointly owned
and operated by the CHA and the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
Each organization has a 50% share in the company, and the board of
directors is chaired by Peter Odle, CHA president, and Vincent
Vanderpool-Wallace, CTO secretary general, as well as the top tier
of officials in each organization.
CTDC projects
will be marketing focused and event-oriented, according to
Odle.
"It's taken us a
while to get here, but now we have one company responsible for
marketing the Caribbean," said Allen Chastanet, CTO chairman and
minister of tourism for St. Lucia. "The importance of tourism is
finally beginning to penetrate this region, The Caribbean is one
brand, and we all live and die by this brand."
To further the
one-brand initiative among its travel trade partners, the CTDC will
launch Caribbean Travel -- The Magazine in April to replace the
Caribbean Gold Book, published twice a year by Gold Book
Publishing, the publishing arm of the CHA, with information and
data supplied by more than 1,100 CHA-member properties.
In its new
format, the publication, which will continue to be published by
Gold Book each April and October, will offer more regional and
destination editorial content, updated hotel listings from 32
Caribbean destinations and an enhanced distribution to more than
24,000 IATA agencies, including 2,700 home-based agents.
Simultaneously,
the new regional Web site jointly managed by the CHA and the CTO
through the CTDC will come online at the agent-accessible www.caribbeantravel.com site, powered by
Travelocity.
Consumers also
will be able to access the site for online lodging
information.
The current
industry-oriented Web sites of the CHA [www.caribbeanhotels.org] and the CTO [www.onecaribbean.org] will remain in place as
information sites for members of both organizations.
To contact reporter Gay Nagle Myers, send e-mail to [email protected].