The Caribbean tourism industry needs stronger partnerships to realize its enormous potential, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association President Karolin Troubetzkoy told attendees this week at the CHTA’s Caribbean Travel Marketplace conference in the Bahamas.

Troubetzkoy, hotelier of St. Lucia’s Jade Mountain and Anse Chastanet resorts, said tourism had been challenged last year by forces that “tested the region’s fortitude.”

“From an unusually warm winter in some originating markets, a weak Canadian currency, Brexit, travel patterns affected by the Olympic Games, U.S. elections and political uncertainty around the globe to Zika and finally to our most unwanted visitor, Hurricane Matthew,” she said.

The annual Caribbean Travel Marketplace conference, which brings together suppliers and buyers from around the world, is being hosted this year at the Atlantis, Paradise Island resort.

This year’s event has attracted an estimated 1,000 registrants and a record number of buyers joining tourism stakeholders.

— Alexander Britell