St. Lucia won the bid to host the Caribbean
Hotel Association's annual Caribbean Marketplace in January 2009,
marking the first time that this major conference, which was
attended by more than 1,500 delegates in Aruba in 2007, will be
held in the eastern Caribbean.
The 2008
Marketplace event is set for Jan. 13 to 15 at Atlantis, Paradise
Island in the Bahamas.
Winning the venue
for St. Lucia was a collaborative effort on the part of the St.
Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, (SLHTA), the St. Lucia Tourist
Board and the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.
Allen Chastenat,
St. Lucia's minister of tourism and civil aviation, revealed the
successful bid at a St. Lucia government reception held in London
during the recent World Travel Market.
"We are truly
grateful that the CHA has demonstrated confidence in St. Lucia and
our local hotel and tourism association to allow us to host the
Caribbean Marketplace," Chastanet said.
The timing of the
event is "just perfect" as it will allow St. Lucia "to showcase our
plans for an additional 2,200 rooms and four major championship
golf courses," according to Colin Hunte, SLHTA
president.
These new rooms
will be found in big-name hotel brands, which are unfurling their
flags for the first time over St. Lucia, such as Ritz-Carlton,
RockResorts and Westin, as well as smaller boutique properties such
as the 42-room all-inclusive Le Paradis Beach, Golf &
Marina.
For conference
information, visit www.caribbeanhotelassociation.com; for destination
information, visit www.stlucia.org.
To
contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Gay
Nagle Myers at [email protected].