Mount Gay's Storied Supper at Miss Things in Toronto!

It's almost two weeks since I attended a very enjoyable evening in Toronto! And the reason I'm sharing it now is that last night at Rick's American Cafe in........ no not Casablanca, but in Capetown, I drank a Black Barrel and Coke there while savouring some grilled calamari and some honeyed ribs and pita dipped in olive oil, vinegar and olives!This reminded me of the Fried Eggplant with Pineapple Fried Rice paired with Mount Gay Black Barrel Bridgetown Sour, one of the several cocktails well prepared by Robin Wynne, the excellent head bartender at Miss Things. This knowledgeable mixologist went to Barbados earlier in the year to get the full experience of this top notch rum and the beautiful land from which it comes! So as you could easily guess he had lovely stories to tell as about thirty of us enjoyed Chapter One: Poisson Cru paired with Mount Gay Eclipse Coconut Lemongrass Daiquiri; Chapter Three: Braised Short Rib paired with Mount gay XO Extra Old Manhattan; Chapter Four: Spiced Pineapple Almond Financier paired with Mount Gay 1703 served neat, and of course Chapter Two - the first pairing mentioned! Also we enjoyed interesting and humorous stories from Master Blender Allan Smith who was on his first visit to Canada after working at Mount Gay Distilleries in Bim, and Scott Fitzgerald, a manager in the USA!Chef Jasper Wu and his crew must be complimented too for the tasty tapas and dessert. It was my first time eating fine fare, and drinking Mount Gay rums at Miss Things in Parkdale, Toronto, and it is also my first time eating flavourful food and drinking Mount Gay rum in Capetown South Africa. Splendid experiences indeed!

Some patrons tasting Mount Gay Rums at Miss Things! 

Photos by Arthur So.

Scott Fitzgerald and Allan Smith

CARIBBEAN TOURISM ORGANIZATION TO HONOUR TWO AIRLINES SERVING THE CARIBBEAN

CTO TO HONOUR TWO AIRLINES SERVING THE CARIBBEAN

 ~ Air Canada and Caribbean Airlines will be recognized during Caribbean Week Canada for decades of  dedicated service to the region ~

                                                        

(BRIDGETOWN, Barbados) 11 Nov 2015 – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) will honour Air Canada and Caribbean Airlines for their decades of service to the Caribbean.

The CTO will present awards to the two airlines during Caribbean Week Canada for longstanding service from that market. Both airlines have demonstrated commitment and  dedication to the growth and development of Caribbean tourism by providing up to six decades of service, according to the CTO’s director of USA Inc Sylma Brown.

“Caribbean Airlines has demonstrated continued dedication to the growth and development of Caribbean tourism by providing more than five decades of intra-regional and international service, while Air Canada has shown its commitment to the region’s tourism sector by providing over six decades of outstanding uninterrupted service to the Caribbean,” said Ms. Brown, head of the CTO’s New York office which is charged with organizing Caribbean Week Canada.

The decision to recognize the two carriers was made following discussions with CTO member countries’ national tourist office representatives in Canada who felt strongly that both airline partners should be among the entities  recognized during Caribbean Week for their strong partnership , Ms. Brown revealed.

The awards will be presented at the Caribbean Tourism Awards Luncheon on Tuesday 17 November at Rosewater in Toronto.

Caribbean Week Canada is supported by Air Canada Vacations, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Caribbean Airlines, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Hibiscus International, Jamaica, Kalinago Beach Resort (Grenada), Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, The Atrebor Group, Transat Tours Canada, Trinidad & Tobago and Turks & Caicos.

For more information, including how you can participate, please visit www.onecaribbean.org.

About the Caribbean Tourism Organization

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), with headquarters in Barbados and offices in New York and London, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of the region’s finest countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year round, warm weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism - One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean.

Among the benefits to its members the organization provides specialized support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution and research & information technology.

In addition the CTO, in partnership with the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association, jointly and equally owns the Caribbean Tourism Development Company, a marketing and business development entity dedicated to promoting the Caribbean brand worldwide.

The CTO’s Headquarters is located at Baobab Tower, Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados BB 22026; Tel: (246) 427-5242; Fax: (246) 429-3065; E-mail: CTObarbados@caribtourism.com

The CTO’s New York office is located at 80 Broad St., Suite 3302, New York, NY 10004, USA: Tel: (212) 635-9530; Fax: (212) 635-9511; E-mail: CTOny@caribtourism.com;

The CTO’s London office is located at The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1BP, England. Tel: 011 44 208 948 0057; Fax: 011 44 208 948 0067; E-mail: CTOlondon@caribtourism.com;

For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization please visit www.OneCaribbean.org. Get the latest CTO updates on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ctotourism. Connect with CTO on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CaribbeanTourismOrganization.

It's Caribbean Tourism Month 2015!

Caribbean Tourism Organization's latest European Report!

Caribbean Tourism Organization launches

UK and European Travel Industry Trends & Insight Report 2015

at World Travel Market

LONDON, UK, 2 Nov. 2015 - The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) today launched its UK and European Travel Industry Trends & Insight Report 2015, produced in conjunction with the travel trade publication, TTG.

For the second year running the CTO has produced this report to give members and wider travel industry partners a unique insight into the key issues affecting the industry and a snapshot on developments within the Caribbean itself.

It was launched by CTO chairman Richard Sealy before an audience that included ministers and directors of tourism from the Caribbean, as well as key industry representatives attending World Travel Market (WTM).

Carol Hay, director of the Caribbean Tourism Organization said: “We are delighted to have produced this report once again and hope our partners, members and ministers find it a useful tool, particularly during the next few days at World Travel Market.  Overall the picture for the Caribbean is a positive one, with an increase in visitor arrivals in the past year, however we need to be aware of universal issues that are affecting the travel industry as a whole such as currency exchange, oil prices and of course safety.”

Key findings from the report include:

Caribbean performance

•       The Caribbean was one of the best performing regions in the first six months of this year with visitor arrivals up 5.8  compared to a 4 per cent rise in international tourism arrivals

•       The region attracted a record-setting 26.3 million tourists in 2014, which was on the back of the previous record of 25 million in 2013. Last year’s visitors contributed a total of $29.2 billion to Caribbean economies, about a third of the region’s GDP

•       Destinations with the biggest year-on-year percentage increase in visitor numbers

(January-July 2015):

o   Cuba: +16.9% (2.2 million visitors)

o   Aruba: +15.8% (680,000)

o   Trinidad & Tobago: +8.5% (265,000)

o   Dominican Republic +7.6% (3.4 million)

o   US Virgin Islands: +6.8% (514,000)

Economic growth

•       As for potential growth in 2016, the International Monetary Fund is currently predicting that the world’s GDP will rise by 3.8% with a continued pick-up in the advanced world economies where it is predicting a 2.4% year-on-year rise in GDP

•       The UK economy is still predicted to grow.  The main risks to attaining this level of economic growth are “increased market volatility” including Greece’s on-going financial problems, and “economic distress” from geopolitical factors.

•       The number of multi-millionaires in Europe will continue to be higher than anywhere else in the world with around 76,000 individuals across the continent

Booking trends

•       Online sales accounted for 66% of all global travel bookings in 2014 which was a seven point rise on previous years.  Bookings at traditional travel agents have stabilised at around 24% of the total market

•       74% of all holidaymakers consider free  Wi-Fi in the hotel room an important factor when booking a hotel room compared to 60% of travellers wanting a free breakfast

•       The “sharing economy” continues to grow.  Airbnb books 37 million room nights per year, which could rise to 129 million per annum by the end of 2016, surpassing all the major hotel chains

Sustainability

•       Sustainable tourism continues to grow and there is more informed conversation around tourism impact management and the importance of this for achieving sustainable tourism. The Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST) gives support to tourism businesses to develop in a sustainable manner.

-  From Communications Dept. at CTO.

- For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization please visit www.OneCaribbean.org orwww.caribbean.co.uk

November is Caribbean Tourism Month!

CARIBBEAN TOURISM MONTH 2015

SPECIAL MESSAGE BY

HON. RICHARD L. SEALY

CHAIRMAN, CARIBBEAN TOURISM ORGANIZATION

THEME: ONE SEA, ONE VOICE, ONE CARIBBEAN

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, 1 Nov 2015 - At the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) last week we shared the encouraging news that the region continues to perform well, attracting visitors at a greater rate during the first half of the year than any other region in the world. During that period, the Caribbean  outpaced the global average by 1.7 per cent and we were the only region to register growth of five per cent -  our 5.8 per cent rise being nearly a full percentage point above Europe,  the next best performing region.

While this is encouraging, we ought not to be complacent for varying reasons. We ought not to be satisfied  because  growth in the second quarter slowed somewhat to 4.9 per cent, compared to the six per cent growth experienced during the first quarter. We ought not to be satisfied because, despite outpacing the rest of the world, our share of the world market is approximately 2.8 per cent. We cannot be satisfied because there is still so much left to be done in the areas of product development, the facilitation of travel to and through the Caribbean, taxes, partnerships, and innovation in order to be competitive. We certainly cannot be satisfied until we become the world’s most desirable year round, warm weather destination and until every citizen of the Caribbean is positioned to benefit from tourism.

During Caribbean Tourism Month, which we observe every November, we will have the opportunity to place even greater emphasis on these and other matters of concern to our industry.  It’s also an excellent time to introduce new ideas, methods and products, to insert innovative and revolutionary thinking and to generate fresh energy into the sector.

Throughout the month the CTO will undertake a social media marathon during which member countries will be profiled on the organization’s social media platforms. It is an excellent, exciting and exceptional opportunity to be featured globally and to demonstrate to the world that the spirit of togetherness we talk so passionately about remains alive and vibrant in the Caribbean. It also helps to give meaning to the Caribbean Tourism Month theme, One Sea, One Voice, Once Caribbean.

I wish to encourage every CTO member country, every tourism organization and entity and everyone who is engaged either directly or indirectly in tourism to organize at least one activity during the month that will help focus attention on the industry. Be creative, be daring, be brave, be innovative.

The CTO will organize a number of activities, including the social media marathon to which I referred earlier. I also wish to announce a social media contest in which people are encouraged to post photos of themselves in the Caribbean using the Caribbean Tourism Month hashtag #CTM2015. You will receive details from the CTO but I encourage everyone, both within and outside the Caribbean, to participate.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the sponsors, supporters and everyone who helps us celebrate Caribbean Tourism Month, One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean.

Happy Caribbean Tourism Month.