By Aldeth Lewin From Virgin Islands Daily News

St. THOMAS – This week hundreds of tourism industry experts, government officials and members of the media will gather on St. Thomas for the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s 2014 State of the Industry Conference.

Thirty flags representing the organization’s member countries line the waterfront from Windward Passage Hotel to Fort Christian to welcome the territory’s Caribbean neighbors.

While the conference itself will be Thursday and Friday at the Marriott’s Frenchman’s Reef, the executive committee and about 40 members of the media will begin to arrive in the territory today.

V.I. Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty is the organization’s outgoing chairman, which is why the conference is on St. Thomas. On Wednesday, a new chairman will be elected to replace her.

About 200 people will be coming from outside the territory to attend the conference, but locals are invited to register and attend as well. Nicholson-Doty said while registration costs $1,295, locals will only pay $250. The registration includes three meals a day for the two-day conference.

“The conference is for any tourism stakeholder, any business, the hoteliers, certainly various government officials,” Nicholson-Doty said. “There will be everything on the agenda, it crosses over many, many, disciplines.”

The conference agenda includes panels with industry experts that will cover topics like maintaining appeal in the wake of a crisis, using technology and data to predict tourist behavior, the implications of private-public relationships, medical tourism, and others.

“There’s so many opportunities and we encourage many of our partners at our local level to find out best practices from across the region and around the world,” Nicholson-Doty said.

She said it is very likely things the territory is dealing with – like medical marijuana and the spread of chikungunya – will be discussed, as other Caribbean nations are dealing with the same things.

“Some countries are debating right now the same issues that we are,” she said. “I think there are a lot of issues that cross boarders. As a Caribbean tourism organization, we want to be at the forefront of dialogue that affects the region. Not pro of con, but to ensure members have all the information they need to make their own decisions for their own destinations.”

The keynote speaker Thursday will be Apple Leisure Group Chief Executive Officer Alex Zozaya, who will talk about conceiving and realizing a vision.

The Philadelphia-based Apple Leisure Group’s subsidiary AMResorts took over management of Sugar Bay resort in July.

On Friday, the featured speaker will be Mexico’s former Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara Manzo, who will talk about steering a mature brand toward a major change.

As part of the conference, youth delegates from about half of the member countries will meet in the Youth Congress. The young people will take tours, discuss topics, and chose a junior minister for the Caribbean region.

The visitors coming for the conference will have opportunities to tour the island and experience the destination, Nicholson-Doty said.

The 40 members of the media coming for the conference are from the Caribbean, the U.S. mainland and Canada, she said.

“There’s a slew of activities that are going to feature the territory,” Nicholson-Doty said. “They will be doing everything from kayaking, to tours and sails. About 10 of the media are taking a post tour to St. Croix next week.”

On Tuesday, the organization, along with the International Air Transport Association and several other aviation organizations, will celebrate Caribbean Aviation Day with a one-day conference. The aviation conference also will be at Frenchman’s Reef and many of the same people will attend both conferences.

For more information or to register for the conference go to www.onecaribbean.org

For more information on Caribbean Aviation Day and the aviation conference, go to www.aviation-day.com

For more on this story go to: http://m.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/caribbean-tourism-conference-set-for-this-week-on-st-thomas-1.1753307

IMAGE: www.chmhotel.com