Above: Puerto Rico (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Puerto Rico Tourism Company has won this year’s award for Caribbean Excellence in Sustainable Tourism from the Caribbean Tourism Organization and TravelMole.

The award is presented to “a destination or tourism-related company in recognition of excellence in planning and managing a diversified tourism product using sustainable tourism concepts and core values,” according to the CTO.

The award is presented jointly by the Caribbean Tourism Organization and TravelMole, the United Kingdom’s leading travel and tourism industry community.

Puerto Rico won one of six awards given at the ceremony, which was held during the CTO’s State of the Industry Conference in St Thomas this week.

“We started these awards to give our partners endorsements they can share with potential visitors so they can garner more business,” said Gail Henry, the CTO’s sustainable tourism product specialist. ”
there are persons keen on keeping their carbon footprint at a minimum during travel and through our award designations these properties and attractions can be easily identified.”

Among the other winners were St Kitts and Nevis’ Tourism Ministry for Destination Stewardship; Belize’s Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort for Sustainable Accommodation; Grenada’s Belmont Plantation Company/Belmont Estate for Community Benefit; the Jost Van Dyke Preservation Society for Heritage Preservation and the British Virgin Islands’ Guana Island Hotel for Biodiversity Conservation.