PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (January 31, 2005) – As the Caribbean prepares to welcome more than 100,000 visitors to its shores for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, some of the region's leading media and business professionals are concerned how the global event will affect the region.
Caribbean journalists will gather in Trinidad at the end of February to follow-up on their CMExPress innings in Kingston, Jamaica last November where they identified the urgent need to resolve issues such as accommodation, opportunities for global advertising, brand building for the region's tourism industry, and how investments would be utilised afterwards.
"We must determine not only how to come up with appropriate accommodations (and facilities) for the World Cup, but also how to sustain their use after the event is over," noted Jamaican broadcaster Don Topping.
CMExPress, a one-day version of Counterpart International's Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx), which brings together journalists and business professionals for a series of high impact communications and media workshops, will resume in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad on Friday, February 25, 2005.
"The World Cup provides an opportunity for world advertising," said Topping on behalf of his conference peers. "We need to brand the Caribbean as a whole, as well as individual countries."
Discussants at the round-table session in Jamaica "widened the boundaries of sustainable tourism" by examining how the global sporting tournament, with its massive following of visitors, will affect Caribbean hospitality, transportation, and health sectors. They also debated cricket's impact on Caribbean culture and entertainment, as well as on security.
"What about the possibility of providing temporary offshore lodging aboard cruise ships, a matter still to be resolved by authorities?" one delegate asked, when posed with the challenge of dealing with the sudden influx of tourists to the Caribbean.
The CMExPress session comes amid the growing debate among Caribbean nationals about how effectively their communities will cope post-World Cup, and what will become of the newly built infrastructure to accommodate the large-scale event.
CMExPress in Port-of-Spain is expected to attract senior media, cricket, travel, tourism and sporting representatives.
CMExPress, produced by Counterpart International, is supported and sponsored by American Express, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Black Entertainment Television, Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, Caribbean Broadcasting Union, Caribbean Hotel Association, Caribbean Star Airlines, Caribbean Sun, Coco Kreole, Continental Airlines, Courtyard by Marriott Hotel Port of Spain, Half Moon Montego Bay, Jamaica Pegasus, Jamaica Tourist Board, The East Project, Ruder Finn, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Population Fund and the United States Agency for International Development.
CMExPress CONCLUSIONS ON CRICKET (KINGSTON, JAMAICA 2004)
· The major sporting tournament is estimated to attract more than 100,000 visitors.
· The Caribbean must determine how to come up with appropriate accommodations for the World Cup – in both rooms as well as sporting facilities , and also how to sustain their use after the event is over.
· The World Cup will affect Caribbean hospitality, transportation and health, as well as Caribbean culture, entertainment, and security.
· The possibility was raised of providing temporary offshore lodging aboard cruise ships to cope with the flood of visitors.
· The World Cup provides a key opportunity for global advertising as well as the chance to brand the Caribbean region as a whole, as well as individual countries.