Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, on the go at CaribbeanWeekNY2018.

Another informative, fun and organized Caribbean Week New York came and went, with the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s members pulling all the stops to show the world that the Caribbean is always open for visitors. 

It was great to see Puerto Rico, Dominica, and St. Maarten/St. Martin present at the Caribbean Media Marketplace. St. Maarten and St. Martin — now a “pro-mance” with a united marketing front for both sides of the island—hosted a luncheon where we learned of the recovery after last year’s hurricanes, with hotel re-openings, as well as a brand new promotional video shot there recently.

Aside from the excitement of the Caribbean Media Awards Dinner—I was a finalist in the “Virtual Visitor Award” category for my CNN piece on Curaçao—it was great catching up with colleagues, meeting new ones, as well as connecting and reconnecting with representatives of the various Caribbean destinations. Two years had passed since my last Caribbean Week appearance, in 2016, when I was honored with the Marcia Vickery Wallace Award.

Because I’m one of few US-publication journalists actually based in the Caribbean (currently living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and prior to that, Belize, and Jamaica), it’s important to show my face and network once in a while. It’s also a great time to catch up on the various islands’ latest and greatest.

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The CTO Media Awards Dinner

A week before the event, the CTO reached out to award finalists and asked for a video of no more than 45

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