Moontown

Despite the following destinations: Nevis, St Barths, Statia and Saba operating normally on Wednesday, they will join the other destinations on Thursday in not operating.

As such, we would also like to inform that the planes that are usually kept in St Maarten, Nevis and Antigua have been routed to St Lucia where they will remain until the passage of Tropical Storm Erika.

Therefore, passengers with confirmed bookings to the affected destinations are asked to contact Winair or their travel agent before heading to the airport.

Passengers are advised to contact their local airports and continue monitoring radio stations for further updates.

Winair will continue to issue further Advisories so as to ensure that passengers are effectively kept informed.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Representatives from nine Caribbean and South American ports-of-call will be amongst participants in the 2009 Seatrade Europe Convention which will take place September 15-17, 2009 in Hamburg, Germany. These destinations will come together to exhibit under the Caribbean Village banner.

This year will see Cartagena and Santa Marta join the grouping of private and public sector entities, comprising tourism agencies, port authorities, shipping agents and tour operators from Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, and Tobago. The objective of this partnership is to continue positioning the region in targeted world markets as the ultimate cruise destination, offering world-class facilities and services to cruise ships, as well as exciting and innovative experiences to their guests.

The Caribbean Village model, according to business development consultant for the Village, Julie-Anne Burrowes, remains an effective vehicle for regional collaboration in the marketing and promotion of Caribbean cruise tourism, given its success to date.

“We are pleased to welcome Cartagena and Santa Marta onboard this year. Their participation underlines the importance of partnership and cooperation to answer the challenges of a competitive marketplace and, is a reflection of the expanding focus of the Village as we explore existing synergies,” commented Burrowes. “To maximize the opportunities offered by the European cruise market sector, we will be highlighting the Caribbean’s unique characteristics, new initiatives and itinerary options, tourism product enhancements, as well as our developed homeport facilities and services during the Seatrade forum.”

The Seatrade Europe Convention has become one of the most important international exhibitions of products and services on the cruise industry calendar. This year’s convention features a number of plenary sessions on market driven issues encompassing the cruise, ferry, river cruise and super yacht segments, in addition to a travel agent training programme.

Titled, “Corporate Social Responsibility in a Time of Crisis” and organized by the Department of International Affairs of the OAS, the event was moderated by Italo Pizzolante, an expert in strategic communications with a distinguished career as an author, consultant and lecturer on subjects like corporate identity, image engineering and corporate responsibility.

During the event it was also emphasized that respect for the law, payment of taxes, sustainable development, social and economic development of local communities and local hiring are some of the foundations on which corporate social responsibility may be built in the Americas.

Albert Ramdin, Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, gave welcoming remarks and called the subject of corporate social responsibility of great importance to the Western Hemisphere, referring also to two decisions taken by the OAS to promote corporate social responsibility at the highest political levels: one, during the Summit of the Americas in 2001 when it recognized the central role that businesses of all sizes play in creating prosperity in the hemisphere; and two, this year, when the General Assembly of the OAS urged governments to promote corporate social responsibility.

Through the promotion of an informed dialogue, the OAS Policy Round Table seeks to bring together the best in political thought to the actions of the OAS in its Permanent Council and General Secretariat, highlighting issues of concern in the inter-American agenda on development, security, human rights and democracy. On this occasion, the speakers were Andrés Peñate, Director of Sustainable Development for Grupo Bavaria, SA; Rodrigo Jiménez, Vice President of Corporative Affairs for Barrick South America; and José Miguel Torrebiarte, Vice President of Grupo Progreso, a company dedicated mainly to the cement industry and the promotion of construction materials in Central America.

“Capitalism is being challenged in our region,” said Peñate, of Colombia, citing a survey in which half of Colombian people said capitalism was not the best system for acquiring and distributing wealth, but rather socialism. “But what if we present them with a more developed and less savage capitalism?” he asked.

Corporate social responsibility, which isn’t philanthropy but an analysis of a company’s external impacts to reduce or eliminate social and environmental harm and contribute to a common wellbeing, may be conducive to a better form of capitalism for countries in the Americas, the experts suggested.

The event was planned jointly with the Secretariat for Integral Development in the framework of the Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program. The Round Table concluded with a question-and-answer session during which the public interacted with the speakers.

Senator Allen Chastanet of St Lucia

The island of St Lucia was on Wednesday selected by the organizers to host the 18th edition of the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), December 3 to 7, 2009.

Reporters, editors, youth representatives and development specialists will interact over four days with leaders of the hospitality sector, civil society and government to explore tourism resilience as well as “Multicultural Marketing: A Climate for Change.”

Underlying the provocative presentations and lively discussion is looking at how tourism can improve the health, wealth, education, environment and culture of destinations in a “climate-friendly fashion”, as delegates examine how to “climate proof” Caribbean tourism as well as build resilience into today’s recessionary environment.

With the stroke or two of their pens, reporters, editors and young people could secure fellowships to attend one of the most sought-after media gatherings in the Caribbean to be held at Coco Palm’s Conference Centre in Rodney Bay Village.

“We are delighted the CMEx organization has chosen to return to the island of St Lucia,” said Senator Allen Chastanet, St Lucia’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, who said the theme was appropriate given his destination’s marketing drive into Diaspora communities overseas.

“The media exchange comes when the twin terrors of global recession and climate change are threatening the very fibre of the Caribbean region’s biggest economic driver - tourism,” said Lelei LeLaulu, a CMEx director and president of the Sensible Development Corporation.

“We need regional leadership in these critical areas right now as others try to impose their own solutions to our detriment,” he added, pointing to the UK’s Airline Passenger Departure tax which he said would “hamstring Caribbean tourism while doing nothing for the climate.”

Rodrigues-Birkett, during an interview with the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN) on Wednesday, disclosed that her ministry has since dispatched a letter to Antiguan counterparts regarding this development.

“We have had reports that the authorities in Antigua are at this point in time retaining the passports of children traveling with their parents… we have had three such reports. We have written to the Antiguan authorities regarding this policy. Certainly the passports the Guyanese people are the property of the Guyanese government and so we have written to them because we need to know what is the policy,” Rodrigues-Birkett said.

Antigua has been cited as one of the countries that have been harsh on Caricom nationals traveling there for the purpose of work but the foreign affairs minister said, as with the Barbadian authorities who were accused of mistreating Guyanese, her government maintains its position that Guyanese wherever they are must be treated with outmost respect and humanely.

By the same token, the Foreign Minister expressed satisfaction with the Barbadian government which she says has shown improvement regarding the treatment of Guyanese living and working there.

“I think we should not underestimate the impact of the discussions on this issue both in the media and discussion that were held by our heads of government and I think that certainly would have resulted in what we are seeing now,” Rodrigues-Birkett stated, adding, “I think its an improvement in what we saw in the earlier period.”

Another point of concern regarding immigration the minister said is that of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) certificate which is being misinterpreted.

Rodrigues-Birkett noted there is a public perception that the free movement mentioned in the revised treaty of Chagauramas means all can move as they like.

She explained that as it is now the CSME Certificate remains confined to specific categories of workers and urged persons who are not in that group not to attempt to use the document.

Among the categories that use the certificate include graduates, artistes, media personnel, musicians and sports persons.

MIAMI, USA (Reuters) — Tropical Storm Erika weakened as it edged over the Leeward Islands of the northeast Caribbean on Wednesday but it threatened to douse them with heavy rainfall, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The fifth tropical storm of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season had sustained winds of 40 miles per hour (65 km per hour), down from 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour) when it formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday.

Strong winds in the upper atmosphere were stifling the poorly organized storm. Forecasters expected Erika to weaken to a tropical depression, with winds below 39 miles per hour (63 km per hour), on Thursday.

The storm was centered over the French island of Guadeloupe, about 320 miles east-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, at 5 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

Erika was moving west at 10 miles per hour (17 km per hour) and was expected to turn west-northwest, then dissipate as it moved over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in the next two days.

That would keep it away from the Gulf of Mexico, where oil and natural gas operations are clustered.

The storm was expected to bring heavy rain to the northeast Caribbean islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe, St Barthelemy, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St Martin-St Maarten, Saba, St Eustatius, the US and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Hovensa LLC said it was monitoring the storm but did not expect to shut its 500,000 barrel-per-day St Croix refinery in the US Virgin Islands. The refinery is one of the largest refining complexes in the Western Hemisphere and is a joint venture between Hess Corp and Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).