The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) with headquarters in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency comprising membership of 24 countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members.
Objectives
The primary objective of the Caribbean Tourism Organization is to provide to and through its members the services and information necessary for the development of sustainable tourism for the economic and social benefit of the Caribbean people by:
providing an instrument for close collaboration in tourism among the various territories, countries and other interests concerned;
developing and promoting regional travel and tourism programs to and within the Caribbean;
providing members with opportunities to market their products more effectively to both the Caribbean and the international tourism marketplaces;
assisting member countries, particularly the smaller member countries with minimal promotional budgets, to maximize their marketing impact through the collective CTO forum;
carrying out advertising, promotions, publicity and information services calculated to focus the attention of the public upon the Caribbean as one of the world’s outstanding tourist destinations;
providing a liaison for tourism matters between member countries;
providing a sound body of knowledge on tourism through data collection, collation and research;
creating processes and systems for disseminating and sharing tourism information;
providing advice, technical assistance and consultancy services with respect to tourism;
providing training and education for Caribbean nationals and for international travel agents;
seeking to maximize the contribution of tourism to the economic development of member countries and the Caribbean through programs likely to increase foreign exchange earnings, increase employment, strengthen linkages between tourism and other economic sector like manufacturing and agriculture, and to reduce leakages from Caribbean economies;
encouraging coordination with respect to research and planning and the efficient allocation of local, regional and international resources at both government and non-governmental levels in tourism development;
researching and identifying the ecological effects of tourism with a view to recommending and /or initiating action aimed at minimizing the negative and enhancing the positive effects;
promoting the consciousness of the need to preserve both the natural and man-made beauty of the Caribbean environment and demonstrating its direct relationship to the development of an attractive tourism product;
developing a tourism product which is essentially Caribbean and which, through maximizing economic benefits, has minimal adverse social and psychological effects on the integrity of Caribbean peoples
Vision and Purpose
The CTO’s vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm weather destination and our purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean.
