Dominican hotel executives will be attending the Caribbean Marketplace, scheduled for 18-20 January in St. Lucia. The event will be the first regional marketing event to test the pulse of how the global financial crisis may affect travel reservations in the Caribbean in 2009. Caribbean Marketplace is the most important annual sales and marketing event on the Caribbean tourism calendar. The event brings together hotels, tour operators and wholesalers and airlines and is produced annually by the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA), that is presided by Dominican Enrique Eduardo de Marchena. CHTA works closely with the host country’s tourism and hotel authorities to organize the event. This time the host is the St Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association (SLHTA) that expects the event to provide “a barometer for the new upscale direction the St. Lucian tourism product is taking.”
The theme for Caribbean Marketplace 2009 is “Business on the Beach” and the main business activity will be accommodated in high-end temporary facilities located on the Pigeon Island Causeway, south of The Landings. Over 12,000 business pre-arranged meetings are expected to be conducted among delegates in attendance.