Special Mention for Almost Paradise for CTO/ Travelmole Sustainable Tourism Awards
~ Winners announced on 18 April at Sustainable Tourism Conference in Trinidad & Tobago ~
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) received a record number of entries for its sustainable tourism awards programme which it organises in collaboration with TravelMole, the online community for the travel and tourism industry. And, for the first time, awards were given in each of the categories.
Almost thirty projects and programmes were submitted from ten CTO member countries spanning all four language groups. The countries included Aruba, Barbados, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
The winners were announced and awards presented at a special luncheon on 18 April at the 14th annual CTO Sustainable Tourism Conference (STC-14) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. The conference runs from 15-18 April.
Among the awards presented was the Sustainable Accommodation Award and it is within this category that Almost Paraside, our member property located in St. Patrick, was awarded a special mention.
“We are really pleased with the enthusiasm that both our member countries and our partners are showing for this award programme, evidenced by the fact that we received a record 29 entries this year,” said Gail Henry, the CTO’s sustainable tourism product specialist, prior to the award ceremony.
“Many of the submissions are extremely strong and compelling, an encouraging sign that the Caribbean tourism sector is placing increasing attention on sustainability,” she added.
The submissions were being judged by an esteemed panel of tourism specialists - Ena Harvey, the hemispheric specialist for agro tourism at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); Seleni Matus, the senior advisor on destinations at Sustainable Travel International and Ms. Henry.
The CTO-TravelMole annual Sustainable Tourism Awards are aimed at identifying and showcasing sustainable tourism good practices in the Caribbean. The awards recognize individuals, groups, organizations or companies in any of the CTO member countries which have developed unique and attractive tourism products or are engaged in implementing sustainable tourism-related initiatives which embrace sustainable tourism concepts and core values.
Almost Paradise Cottages was not in Trinidad for the CTO Investment Conference – the award was collected on their behalf by Grenada’s representative at the conference Nikoyan Roberts of the Grenada Board of Tourism. On Thursday May 2 the GHTA was honoured to have Hon. Alexandra Otway-Noel present the award to owners Uwe and Kate Baumann.