Mottley could headline CTO meeting in Cayman
(CNS): The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) will be holding its first major in-person conference since the COVID-19 pandemic in the Cayman Islands from 12-15 September and it is hoped that the widely popular and influential Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley will be a guest speaker.
Earlier this month, Tourism and Transport Minister Kenneth Bryan, who visited Barbados last week for a transportation conference, said he was hoping Mottley would be coming, but officials have said her visit is not yet confirmed.
According to a release from the ministry, the CTO will be attended by regional leaders, tourism directors, senior executives, media and students who participated in the Caribbean Youth Congress, as well as international aviation experts. While Mottley’s presence would be a boon to the conference, hosting it will, in any event, be a gain for Cayman, especially because it will be held in the low season.
Cayman Islands Tourism Director Rosa Harris that, historically, there is a drop in the number of guests in September and the conference will act as a boost for our local tourism businesses. “The conference is a chance for collaboration between the government and the private sector as well as our regional colleagues as we work to make tourism more sustainable and inclusive, both in the Cayman Islands and the region,” she added.
The Ministry and Department of Tourism are now working with local industry stakeholders to organise and facilitate venues, accommodations, and dining and entertainment experiences for the incoming attendees.
“It is a great honour to be the host country for this significant conference and we look forward to welcoming CTO and the delegations from the member countries to the Cayman Islands,” Bryan said. “The CTO does vital work for the region, and this is an opportunity for regional ministers and industry leaders to meet face-to-face to have key discussions as the region continues to recover from the pandemic and plan for the future.”
The conference has been on hold for the past two years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequently, the 2022 CTO Business Meeting hosted in the Cayman Islands will be the first in-person occurrence since the start of the pandemic.
Acting CTO Secretary-General Neil Walters pointed out that the sector and the Caribbean as a whole have faced severe challenges over the two-year pandemic. “For some months, there have been distinct signs pointing to a robust recovery by the sector, underlined by the fact that the Caribbean is among the regions experiencing the fastest rates of growth since mid-2021 and in some cases outpacing the rest of the world. The CTO believes this is an optimal moment for industry leaders to collaborate and strategise,” he stated in the release.
During the CTO conference, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) will host Caribbean Aviation Day on 14 September. This event will bring together the top management of the airline and tourism industry in the region, government ministers, aeronautical authorities, the diplomatic corps and media representatives. The objective is to discuss the challenges and opportunities of this sector and the recovery of the region, as well as the roadmap to enhance benefits of aviation in the Caribbean.
IATA Regional VP for the Americas Peter Cerda said in the release, “The current spirit of cooperation with governments in the region will enable aviation along with the entire tourism and travel value chain to play a key role in the region’s post-pandemic economic and social recovery.”
The conference includes the following meetings and events:
- CTO Board of Directors Meeting – Attended by the Directors of Tourism and the private sector members of the board, this is where the work plan, budget and other proposals for special consideration are discussed and approved.
- CTO Council of Ministers Meeting – Attended by the Ministers of the CTO member countries, this is where the approved work plan, budget and other special proposals are discussed and ratified.
- The Election of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers – This event occurs every two years and is where the financial members of the Council of Ministers vote to select the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers.
- Caribbean Youth Congress – The Youth Congress is a developmental competition involving students aged 14 to 17 from CTO member countries who debate on regional tourism matters. Its main aim is to stimulate greater awareness and excitement about tourism among young people in our Caribbean communities.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
With God’s grace, I hope she encourages debate so that Cayman can follow the path to a political republic.
“ Under Ms. Mottley’s watch, the country has developed an ambitious plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”.
95% of the power generation in Barbados comes from burning diesel. The most inefficient, expensive and carbon emitting way possible. Actually worse than coal when you factor in shipping and refining.
Will be interesting to hear Ms Mottley’s detailed and economically feasible plan to phase that out in 8 years. Otherwise she is just doing what she is accusing the UN of doing. All talk no action.
I do really hope she has a plan and Wayne is listening. But I have my doubts.
She best apply for her working visa from now then.
Anyone thinking tourism is going to rebound to pre-Covid levels in the next five years is a fool, I’d like to know what new revelations Ms. Mottley brings to the Duke’s or should I say Duchess’s table?
Hope she comes with the same fire she had at the UN!
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 (Reuters) – An impassioned Barbados prime minister on Friday sought to spur meaningful action from the 193-member United Nations on crises from climate and COVID-19 vaccines to poverty and education, invoking singer Bob Marley: “Who will get up and stand up?”
“If we can find the will to send people to the moon and solve male baldness … we can solve simple problems like letting our people eat at affordable prices,” Mia Amor Mottley told the annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
Mottley – who has led the Caribbean island nation since 2018 – called out the 76-year-old world body for “nice words” instead of action, saying people question the relevance of an organization “that only comes and does not listen to each other that only talks and will not talk with each other.”
“How many more leaders must come to this podium and not be heard before they stop coming? How many times must we address an empty hall of officials and an institution that was intended to be made for leaders to discuss with leaders?” she said.
Mottley summoned the late Jamaican singer, songwriter and musician by saying: “The words of Robert Nesta Marley. Who will get up and stand up for the rights of our people?”
“Who will stand up in the name of all those who have died during this awful pandemic? The millions. Who will stand up in the name of all those who have died because of the climate crisis?”
After sending video statements last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, many leaders again returned to New York this week to address the General Assembly with the focus very much on an inequitable rollout of vaccines and the climate crisis.
“We have the means to give every child on this planet a tablet. And we have the means to give every adult a vaccine. And we have the means to invest in protecting the most vulnerable on our planet from a change in climate. But we choose not to,” Mottley said.
“It is not because we do not have enough, it is because we do not have the will to distribute that which we have,” she said.
https://www.reuters.com/world/get-up-stand-up-barbados-leader-invokes-marley-goad-un-2021-09-24/
Good for Dart, tough luck for the CTO members. They will have to wait a little bit longer to journey somewhere that can deliver lessons on planning, brand intention, and generally competence.
i did hear rumours of motley crue returning to cayman
I sinerely hope she tells the CIG to lift all Covid Restrictions now.concerned
She can tell them but she cannot force them to.
What has she done about the sargassum problem in Barbados?
What can anyone do about the sargassum problem?
Stuff.
Actually, they could lobby Brazil whose clearance of the Amazon rainforest and widespread poor farming practices are causing nutrients to spill into the Atlantic at elevated levels, spewing excessive blooms of Sargassum.
The Prime Minister has great plans for Barbados and the Faceless Few.
From the UN website:
When the top Barbadian politician stood up in front of the UN General Assembly earlier this year, she was not in a mood to pull punches.
In front of world leaders, she decried the “faceless few” pushing the world towards a climate catastrophe and imperilling the future of small-island States, like her own.
The impassioned speech would grab headlines around the world and for many, it was an introduction to Mottley.
But the Barbados Prime Minister, this year’s Champion of the Earth for Policy Leadership, has spent years campaigning against pollution, climate change, and deforestation, turning Barbados into a frontrunner in the global environmental movement.
Under Ms. Mottley’s watch, the country has developed an ambitious plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.
Her vision is for nearly every home on the island to have solar panels on the roof and an electric vehicle out front. At Ms. Mottley’s urging, Latin America and the Caribbean became the first region in the world to agree on the Action Plan for the UN Decade on
Ecosystem Restoration, an effort to prevent and reverse the degradation of natural spaces worldwide.
Vision, how very Caribbean. How about actually getting something done?
Typical foreign trash comment.
Why don’t you do something oh great expat.
Unlike any of our leaders to date, Mia Mottley is not about platitudes and token gestures she’s about action and equity and is determined seeing things through. Your comment puts your ignorance on public display as you clearly know nothing about what she is actually doing.
History will say otherwise
Residents of Barbados are quick to volunteer to clean all of their beaches of sargassum. And they don’t want paying. Mia Mottley has secured funding to help with the issue and I believe also invested in the same ships To harvest sargassum before it hits the beaches that I’ve been recommending for us to use for the last decade. She does a lot more for Barbados and the entire Caribbean region than any other leader. She is the Caribbean Queen and sets an example we can only wish other leaders would follow, especially ours.
We shall see in 5 years how Barbados is doing good island & people. Plenty smoke, no fire