However, she added that she was heartened to hear Sir Dwight Venner, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) recently underscore tourism"s key contribution to the region"s economic growth, wrote Caribbean journalist, Bevan Springer.

Berthia Parle said she hopes more private sector entities, especially those which benefit greatly from the industry, would repay that boost from tourism by investing some of their profits in events like the Caribbean Media Exchange which is geared to educate journalists about the true value of the industry.

Parle contended if more regional journalists recognize the importance of tourism to the economies of the Caribbean, they could then be in a position to convince many more people through their reporting that this is the key industry for the region"s economic survival.

"The Caribbean is right for investment and we are now moving in a more concerted way into the arena of sports tourism ... they would need to understand what this means and the other logistics of tourism," she noted.

"This is a complex industry and some people understand that while others don"t. It is a fragile industry but also a very resilient one - the recent Hurricanes proved that, as we were down for all of two to three days but we maintained our resilience and were soon up and running again," Parle explained.

Parle said that CHA, and the producers of CMEx - Counterpart International and Counterpart Caribbean - were playing their part in bringing more information to Caribbean journalists through CMEx and CHA"s three annual conferences..

The CHA President was speaking as preparations continue for the February 25th CMExPress, the second one-day version of the successful Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism that has been held across the region for the past three years.

This time, journalists from Trinidad, the Caribbean and North America will meet in Port of Spain to discuss Sports Tourism and the region"s hosting of the 2007 World Cup Cricket competition.

By: Prensa-Latina