CARIBBEAN TODAY


-us..aribbeantodayxom


NEW YORK Haitian
American travel executive
Caroline Racine has been
promoted to director of diver-
sity sales within the global
sales division at Choice
Hotels International.
 Racine, who ran the com-
pany's Caribbean Franchise
Development efforts for two
and a half years, has been
given the responsibility for the
growing multi-
cultural mar-
kets segment.
 Diversity
and multicul-
tural sales is a
new division
within the
company's
global sales Racine
department
and in the newly established
role Racine will be responsi-
ble for developing strategic
direct sales, marketing and e-
commerce solutions to help
propel Choice as a leader in
what is becoming a competi-
tive market segment.
 Jose Salvador Icaza, who
previously assumed responsi-
bility for franchise sales and
development positions for the


-I.......m


Time to upgrade product, market

aggressively ~ Jamaica's minister


LONDON, England -
Jamaica's Tourism Minister
Ed Bartlett believes
Caribbean countries should do
whatever they can to upgrade
their product and attract visi-
tors in order to keep their
economies afloat despite the
global downturn.
 Speaking at the World
Travel Market (WTM) trade
show here last month, Bartlett
said his coun-
try has been
able to main-
tain its posi-
tion as a lead-
ing destination
through an
aggressive
drive to
upgrade its Bartlett
product and to
market Jamaica as a place
tourists want to visit.
 "Well, we have had to
be.. .we went out there and
refurbished and refreshed our-
selves in terms of our product
offerings," he explained. "We
added 5,000 to 6,000 new
rooms, we added attractions
and we improved our infra-
structure. We had big invest-
ments in our airports and our
highway systems.. .we recog-
nized that if you have more
rooms in a recession, you have
to be aggressive, you have to
go out there and market."


 Jamaica has recorded a
six percent increase in stay-
over visitors this year.
 "Those countries that
have remained aggressive dur-
ing this recession, the rewards
have been in terms of
increased arrivals in some
cases and in other cases it is
both an increase in arrivals as
well as increased market
share," Bartlett said.

'OPTIMAL'
 But Bartlett described the
latter as being the "optimal"
way to go.
 "It is, in fact, what you
must do because when you're
out of the recession that mar-
ket share now is going to
reflect itself in volumes high-
er numbers which will give
you the arrival explosion that
you will need to drive your
industry," he explained.
 Bartlett said Caribbean
countries have been using
more aggressive marketing
approaches to respond to the
challenges posed by the reces-
sion, but that now is not the
time to lax.
 "If we don't quickly
respond, we are going to be
the region that is left out," the
minister warned.
0


St. Lucia ramps up courting of


 Asian American market


CASTRIES, St. Lucia St.
Lucia's tourism authorities are
ramping up efforts targeting
the Asian American market,
with special welcome to
Taiwanese Americans.
 Louis Lewis, St. Lucia's
director of tourism, said that
on the heels of a recent famil-
iarization visit of Taiwanese
Americans, spearheaded by
Bay Gardens Resorts, the
island is anticipating the
arrival of leading civil society
activist Iris Ho, who is sched-
uled to participate in this
month's Caribbean Media
Exchange on Sustainable
Tourism (CMEx) at Coco


Palm's Conference Centre.
 St. Lucia has explored the
potential for "ethnic" tourism
in the
Caribbean and
the tourism
authorities are
assessing the -- -
potential to
market the -
island to
Taiwanese
Americans. Ho
CMEx was
scheduled to meet under a
theme which examines multi-
cultural tourism markets, as
well as climate change.
 St. Lucia is one of a hand-


ful of nations in the Caribbean
that recognizes the Taiwanese
government.
 "It's a long way from
Taiwan, but we have hundreds
of thousands of Taiwanese in
America who remain attached
to their home country," said
Ho. "They are now a prosper-
ous community and include
many professionals and busi-
ness people. Like most middle
class Americans, they like
vacations and we think they
might like to show their appre-
ciation to St. Lucia."
0


British travel duty to Caribbean

destinations unjust Chastanet


LONDON, England St.
Lucia's Tourism Minister
Allen Chastanet, has blasted
the recently imposed British
Air Passenger Duty (APD) as
"catastrophic" and "unjust,"
and strongly urged the United
Kingdom to scrap it.
 "First of all, it's a cata-
strophic tax and it's going to
be immediately catastrophic to
us in the region, particularly to
the Caribbean where we're so
dependent on tourism, it's not
like we have something else to
go to," Chastanet said of the
APD, which was introduced
on Nov. 1 and adds extra


charges for passengers flying
from the U.K.
 The Caribbean has been
placed in a higher band than
the United States, although
some U.S. destinations are
further away. As a result, pas-
sengers will pay a higher levy
to fly to the Caribbean than
places like Los Angeles and
Hawaii.
 The St. Lucian tourism
minister, who was named
"Caribbean Travel Personality
of the Year" at the event, said
the tax has come at a bad time
for the Caribbean's bread and
butter industry, which is


already reeling from the
impact of the global recession.
He further contended that the
APD is illegal, a point the
region has raised at the level
of the International Civil
Aviation Organization
(ICAO).
 Meanwhile, British law-
maker Sarah Teather has
vowed to keep pressure on
the Gordon Brown adminis-
tration to revoke its "ridicu-
lous" APD on passengers fly-
ing to the Caribbean.
0


Cambria Suites and Sleep Inn
brands, has been appointed
director of emerging markets
and Caribbean Franchise
Development, and will be aim-
ing to build on the groundwork
made by Racine in the region.
 Launched about a year
ago, Ascend Collection
includes more than two-dozen
upscale properties. With
Ascend, Choice Hotels aims to
lend marketing and opera-
tional support to drive busi-
ness directly to smaller, one-of-
a-kind Caribbean properties.
 Racine has remained con-
nected to the Caribbean
region, assisting Icaza with his
transition into his new role.
She was recently in Haiti with
Icaza to help establish rela-
tionships with key tourism and
hotel stakeholders. Before
joining Choice 11 years ago,
Racine was lead account exec-
utive for America Online's
interactive partnership mar-
keting initiatives. She has also
served in various sales and
marketing positions in organi-
zations such as The Discovery
Channel.
0


Haitian American moves up

 at Choice Hotels


AIR JAMAICA TO THE WORLD


Bruce R. Nobles, right, Air Jamaica's president and chief executive officer, is joined by Miss Jamaica World 2009 Kerrie Baylis and
George W. DeMercado, the airline's senior director for global sales, to celebrate the honor of "The Caribbean's Leading Airline" received
at the 2009 World Travel Awards in London, England last month. This is the 12th consecutive yearAir Jamaica has received the award.
The World Travel Awards celebrate the achievements in all sectors of the global travel industry. Voting is cast by travel agents in more
than 190 countries.
 Jamaica earnedl6 awards at the event. Among them, "Leading Caribbean Destination", "World's Leading Cruise Destination" and
"Caribbean's Leading Cruise Destination". Jamaica was also honored for its "Once you go, you know" advertising campaign, in a new cate-
gory, "Caribbean's Leading Marketing Campaign". The Jamaica Tourist Board was recognized as the "Caribbean's Leading Tourist Board".


December 2009


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