Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Monday 23 october 2017

With Aruba high on the list:

Travel industry ramps up effort to promote Caribbean tourism

By BETH J. HARPAZ impacted communities host cruise visits, such as
AP Travel Editor through its Family Bonds Key West, Florida, and St.
The travel industry is ramp- Foundation. Kitts. Royal Caribbean an-
ing up efforts to remind A new website, Caribbe- nounced that its ship Ad-
consumers that many Ca- anIsOpen.com , is part of a venture of the Seas will
ribbean islands were unaf- million-dollar initiative fund- resume port calls to St.
fected by hurricanes and ed by the Florida-Caribbe- Thomas on Nov. 10, and
that their economies de- an Cruise Association. that the ship hopes to be in
pend on tourism. “This initiative is also a vital San Juan, Puerto Rico, and
Tourism agencies and tool to assisting the Carib- St. Martin by the end of No-
travel companies are pro- bean by stimulating the vember.
moting deals, events and economy,” the group’s AAA Travel is also launch-
fundraising efforts while president, Michele Paige, ing a “Caribbean is Open
reinforcing the basic mes- said in a statement. “Many for Business” campaign,
sage that most islands were Renaissance Island, Aruba. Caribbean destinations for- calling the region a top
unscathed by the storms travel,” with agents be- economic impact on the tunately missed any impact AAA-recommended des-
and are eager for visitors. coming “ambassadors” region will be compound- from the hurricanes, and tination for fall and winter
The Travel Leaders travel for the region by providing ed if visitors avoid travel to most affected destinations getaways, listing Antigua,
agency, for example, has travelers with information unaffected destinations,” worked around the clock Aruba, Bahamas, Barba-
launched a “consumer- on conditions and pack- Travel Leaders Group CEO to reopen for tourism.” dos, Belize, Bermuda, Bo-
awareness campaign to ages. “This hurricane sea- Ninan Chacko said in a The website notes that naire, Curacao, Domini-
promote Caribbean des- son has been devastating statement. Travel Leaders even destinations that saw can Republic, Jamaica,
tinations that are open for for a number of Caribbean Group is also raising money some damage from the Martinique, Saint Lucia, St.
business for fall and winter islands, but the negative for hurricane victims and hurricanes are starting to Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent
& The Grenadines, the
Cayman Islands, Trinidad
and Tobago, Turks & Ca-
icos and St. Vincent & The
Grenadines.
In Dominica, the Secret Bay
resort set up a fundraising
page to benefit staff after
many of its regular visitors
from past years asked how
they could help.
Turks and Caicos is adver-
tising its annual Caribbean
Food & Wine Festival in
Providenciales, Nov. 2-5,
noting that the not-for-prof-
it festival will raise funds for
Turks & Caicos educational
institutions damaged by
Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Skylark.com, a luxury va-
cation site, sent out a plea
for donations to the official
website for the recovery of
the U.S. Virgin Islands . Sky-
lark added that “much of
the Caribbean was com-
pletely unaffected,” with a
link to the website’s “ideas
on where to go .”
Even islands that suffered
no storm damage are on
a mission to make them-
selves visible. One public
relations agency sent out
a press release noting that
the Bahamas were “for-
tunate to have come out
of the 2017 hurricane sea-
son without impact to the
country’s primary tourism
product,” adding for good
measure that there have
been no documented cas-
es of Zika virus there since
November 2016.q