Caribbean Hotel Association to present report at upcoming Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference & PROFIT Partnership Meeting, May 9-11, 2005, Barbados

Caribbean Hotel Association;
Capital Representatives, a British financial consultancy company, has been contracted by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) to prepare a white paper on the establishment of a prospectus for a Regional Tourism Investment Fund (RTIF). Funded by a grant from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the British Government, the objective of the RTIF project is to develop a consortium of banks and financial institutions to create a fund dedicated to tourism interests in the Caribbean. The RTIF would allow mainly small businesses to gain access to investments, thus contributing to the development of tourism in the region and putting a larger share in the hands of Caribbean nationals. The outcomes and recommendations of the report will be presented at the upcoming Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference (CHTIC) & PROFIT Partnership Meeting, to be held at the Sherbourne Conference Center in Barbados, May 9-11, 2005.

“It is very difficult for small businesses in the Caribbean to attract investment. In most cases, the provision of the non-equity capital for resort and hotel development is done by banks. But banks will typically lend only up to 50-60% of the value of the property and for a short period of time usually no longer than 10 years, which makes it considerably more difficult for the owner/developer,” said Alex Titcombe, Director of the Advocacy and Research Program at CHA.

Through the month of April, CR consultants will meet with financial experts and tourism stakeholders in the Caribbean and outside, including national hotel associations, governments, and hoteliers. The resulting report will outline a matrix of the expected capital needs by sector; make recommendations as to how the RTIF could be established and managed; identify potential partners and investors; and estimate the cost structure.

The financial support of the UK government for this project is the result of CHA’s advocacy program to move tourism further up the political agenda in Europe and the Caribbean. The Caribbean tourism policy workshop hosted in November 2003 by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office offered a first ever opportunity for CHA to make in Europe a significant contribution to the multi-lateral exchange of views on the challenges that the Caribbean tourism industry faces and the search for solutions. In bringing the two-day meeting to closure, its Chairman, the Hon. Minister Rammell, the Minister responsible for Britain’s relations with the Caribbean, undertook to examine a number of concrete proposals with his colleagues within the British Government, including the RTIF.

Meanwhile, the RTIF builds on the PROFIT in the Caribbean Partnership Meeting that will be held in conjunction with CHTIC 2005, to promote partnership and investment opportunities in the tourism industry sector. PROFIT will provide a major business-to-business event for the Caribbean tourism sector with special support for small, medium and large scale businesses to present projects to potential European investors and partners during pre-scheduled business appointments. PROFIT is sponsored by Pro€Invest, a program of the Group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) States and the European Commission. For more information, go to www.caribbeaninvestment.org.

PRO€INVEST is a program of the Group of ACP States and the European Commission for the promotion of investment and technology transfer to the ACP countries strengthening support to the development of company partnerships. PRO€INVEST operates a Management Unit within the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) under the supervision of the EuropeAid Office of the European Commission.

About the Caribbean Hotel Association
The Caribbean Hotel Association is dedicated to excellence in hospitality, leadership in marketing, and sustainable growth in tourism, to the benefit of its membership and that of the wider Caribbean community. It aims to be a regional forum that will advance the Caribbean hotel and tourism industry. The members of CHA represent the entire spectrum of hospitality industry’s private sector, from 835 member hotels representing some 127,000 hotel rooms in 36 national hotel associations, to 520 allied members including airline executives, tour operators, travel agents, trade and consumer press, hotel and restaurant suppliers, and others.