Travel and Leisure's Top 25 Resort Hotels in the Caribbean

The Saint Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association (SLHTA) congratulates our member hotels for making the top 25 Resort Hotels list for 2021. These member hotels include:
  • Jade Mountain
  • Cap Maison
  • Anse Chastanet
  • Sugar Beach A Viceroy Resort

This year's World's Best Awards survey was open for voting January 11 through May 10, 2021, as destinations around the world were lifting COVID-19 restrictions. Survey rules have always allowed readers to reflect on their travel experiences over a three-year period. We hope that this year's honorees will inspire your own travels as you get back out into the world...Read More
Register Today: Direct Booking Strategies That Increase Revenue

Caribbean hotels are losing out on so much direct revenue by overreliance on 3rd party channels. Third parties are an important part of your channel mix, but there are many other strategies that can bring direct bookings and loyal repeat stays without the heavy commissions.
 
Join us for an engaging discussion on:
  • Effective management with tour operators – understand your true constrained demand to see what inventory you offer
  • Understanding your true competition: it’s not local other properties; its island based. Seeing how to compete effectively knowing this is the case
  • Storytelling and brand strategies to ensure travelers see the true value of YOUR island, property and what makes it special and unique
  • Using tools like Shopping Cart Abandonment re-targeting “white glove” solutions on your Web site to ensure those lookers book on your site, not the OTA
  • Why with proper training and techniques, your call centers can be your best sellers vs. order takes that turn travelers into dates, rates and names
Moderator: Sanovnik Destang, Executive Director, Bay Gardens Resorts
 
Panelists:
  • Michael Stark, Enterprise Sales Consultant, NAVIS
  • Oliver Janke, Account Director, US South East & Caribbean, Preferred Hotels & Resorts
  • Marc Liu, Head of Strategy, Elmntl
Saint Lucia Launches New Climate Change Resilience Project

The Departments of Agriculture and Sustainable Development have joined forces to launch the Building Resilience or Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate Variability in Agriculture in Saint Lucia Project, which is funded by the Adaptation Fund and implemented by the Caribbean Development Bank.

Saint Lucia, like many other small island developing states, is highly vulnerable to natural disasters due to its geography, location, climate, and geology. The “Building Resilience or Adaptation to Climate Change and Climate Variability in Agriculture in Saint Lucia Project” aims to improve the resilience of rural farm communities by increasing farm productivity, water, and livelihood security, and reducing vulnerability to natural hazards, climate variability, and climate change...Read More
African, Caribbean Leaders End ‘Very Successful’ Summit

The first-ever Africa-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit has ended with an acknowledgement of the need for closer socio-economic relations as well as establishing the infrastructure that would allow for the greater movement of people from the two regions towards each other.

Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, who co-chaired the virtual summit that was addressed by a number of African and CARICOM leaders, described the near four-hour deliberations as a “very successful summit” ‘that was held under the theme Unity Across Continents and Oceans...Read More
Caribbean Tourism Scores High Marks Despite The Pandemic

Despite daunting challenges presented over the past 18 months by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Caribbean tourism and hospitality industry is said to have recorded many significant successes, and data points to an encouraging outlook ahead. Speaking at the Caribbean Hotel & Resort Investment Summit (CHRIS) held last week, Acting CEO and Director General of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) Vanessa Ledesma presented insights on the performance and outlook of the Caribbean tourism industry. 

The World Travel & Tourism Council’s annual Economic Impact Report indicates that the pandemic delivered a blow of $33.9 billion in lost revenue to the Caribbean’s travel and tourism sector, lowering the sector’s contribution to GDP by 58 percent, higher than the global average...Read More
Protocols impeding region’s recovery

This comes as travel experts in some of Barbados’ key source markets report a continued high demand for travel, but warned that COVID-19 protocols continued to impede a full recovery of the industry.

Giving an insight into the latest impact assessment survey carried out this summer among the more than 33 member countries of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), acting CEO and Director General of the CHTA Vanessa Ledesma said 72 per cent of these companies are expected to fully recover from the pandemic.

“The results were that small and medium-sized tourism businesses in the Caribbean are poised to recover. Ninety-nine per cent report implementing stronger health and safety protocols and over 8,000 supervisors, managers and owners have participated in training that we have deployed this past year,” said Ledesma...Read More