The Organisation of Jap Caribbean States (OECS) is looking for a discount within the membership charges to the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Group (CTO), Antigua and Barbuda’s Tourism Minister, Charles Fernandez, has mentioned.
He mentioned the problem was raised on the first enterprise assembly of the CTO held in Curaçao final week.
“Though the larger islands pay greater than the smaller islands, should you pro-rate it per customer, you will discover out that we pay extra per customer acquired than the larger islands. I discover that it must be re-calibrated. This has gone on for years and nobody has ever raised it,” mentioned Fernandez.
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The OECS teams the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
The CTO is the Caribbean’s tourism improvement company comprising membership of Dutch, English, French and Spanish nations and territories, in addition to a myriad of personal sector allied members.
Its main goal is to offer to and thru its members the providers and knowledge essential for the event of sustainable tourism for the financial and social advantage of the Caribbean individuals by amongst different issues growing and selling regional journey and tourism packages to and throughout the Caribbean in addition to aiding member nations, significantly the smaller member nations with minimal promotional budgets, to maximise their advertising affect via the collective CTO discussion board.
Fernandez, mentioned one other main final result of final week’s assembly was a call by the CTO to jot down off hundreds of {dollars} owed by Antigua and Barbuda in 2017, considering the injury brought on by Hurricane Irma in Barbuda.
“Though the hurricane didn’t hit Antigua, Barbuda is part of us they usually had not given us the credit score for that; nonetheless, we have been in a position to get that accomplished,” Fernandez mentioned, noting that a number of different islands have already benefitted from the initiative.
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