GOOD WORK!

The North Leeward Tourism Association (NLTA) has received an award for their work in the development of environmentally friendly tourism.
Their second place award was given by the Islands Magazine as the sixth Annual Caribbean Conference on sustainable Tourism Development wrapped up last Friday in Havana Cuba.{{more}}
Receiving the award on behalf of the Association was Andreas Wickham, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, who represented this country at the important regional forum.
This event brought together participants from the Spanish, French and majority English speaking Caribbean to debate and hear presentations from tourism experts from throughout the region.
The annual conference was held with the theme “Keeping the Right Balance – Land and Sea Encounters”. This
served as a reminder of the state of “the critical linkages between the state of natural resource base and the growth of tourism.
Presentations were heard from noted regional experts including Dominica’s Arthurton Martin who challenged the delegates present to go beyond talk and implement the many recommendations that are made at each conference.
The Cuban Ministry of Tourism, as hosts of the forum, took advantage of the presence of its neighbours to show off examples of its tourism product, both beach based and inland mountain nature tourism.
The importance of holistic planning of the tourism product and the education of the general public to the success of the industry was a point driven home throughout the conference. Of particular interest during discussion were the threats faced by marine pollution, both to the larger territories such as Cuba, the island with the largest coastal area and to the smaller islands in the centre of the Caribbean Sea.
This conference was held in collaboration with the Association of Caribbean States and heard addresses from Secretary General Dr. Ruben Silie, Cuba’s Minister of State Ricardo Cabrisas and Anjan Datta from United Nations Environmental Programme.
Searchlight Editor Dexter Rose was among regional media persons who attended the conference.