Close to 200 tourism specialists and media representatives are expected to participate in the 13th annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development opening this weekend at the Guyana International Conference Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.
The event from April 15-18 is being organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) under the theme “Keeping the Right Balance: Sustaining Our Resources”. The Ministry of Tourism/Guyana Tourism Authority said yesterday in a press release that the forum will expose tourism industry stakeholders to considerable expertise from Caribbean and international organizations, companies and institutions.
It is attracting an impressive line-up of speakers from across the Caribbean, including Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and host country Guyana, as well as international experts from several countries, the release noted.
Guyanese specialists involved in the conference include Shyam Nokta, Adviser to the President and Head, Office of Climate Change (OCC) in the Office of the President, and Donald Sinclair, former Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority, who is now the Coordinator for Tourism, Transport, Infrastructure and Communication at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation in Brasilia.
Among other presenters at the three-day conference are Leonard Nurse, current chairman of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, headquartered in Belize; and Ena Harvey, Management Coordinator of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA).
Also participating is Charles Brown, Director of the Department of Sustainable Development in Bermuda’s Ministry of the Environment, Planning and Infrastructure, and Annette Arjoon-Martins, who chairs the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project which seeks the commitment of Guyanese towards the protection and development of sustainable mangrove forests.
