The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has appealed for public and travel industry support…
The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has appealed for public and travel industry support. Julia Hendry, director of marketing for the CTO in the UK and Europe said: We would like to express our sympathy to everybody who has been affected by Hurricane Ivan and can announce that the CTO has already launched a Caribbean Tourism Organisation Relief Fund, for the travel industry to pull together and provide monetary assistance to the affected member states. Grenada has been most severely affected and the British Red Cross has launched a Caribbean Hurricane Appeal relief effort, with a team of UK delegates already travelling to the island.
Hendry continued: There are more than 30 destinations in the Caribbean and the vast majority have remained unaffected by the hurricane. This region spans the same distance as London to Athens, so what happens in one country doesn`t necessarily impact on others – which could be as much as 2,000 miles away.
Of those islands that have been affected I`m pleased to say that almost all are open for business to welcome visitors again. Aruba is back to normal as is The Bahamas. Airports in Jamaica are open again today. The eye of the hurricane missed the Cayman Islands and Cuba and they are assessing the situation.
The Caribbean stretches 2,000 miles from Belize in the west to Barbados in the east, and 2,000 miles from Bermuda in the north to Suriname in the south. The weak dollar against the pound and the introduction of greater numbers of flights to the Caribbean has seen the number of UK bookings to the region increase by more than 17% this year according to CTO estimates.
The CTO publishes detailed guides to the Caribbean including latest weather forecasts on www.caribbean.co.uk. It is also advising travellers to check with travel agents and tour operators for detailed guidance and advice.
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