By Alexander Britell

ST GEORGE’S — The Caribbean’s leading regional tourism conference began in earnest on Tuesday night in Grenada.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization’s State of the Industry conference, held each autumn, is holding court at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort on Grenada’s famous Grand Anse Beach.

The theme of this year’s conference, which is being held through Oct. 13, is “super-charing the Caribbean brand: meeting the needs of the new explorers.”

The Radisson Grenada, home to this year’s SOTIC conference.

Given last month’s hurricanes, however, a major focus will be on reconstruction and recovery in the region, with a special session of SOTIC 2017 looking at how to recover and rebuild after a major disaster.

“This is the time when not only do we have to focus on the state of the industry as we know it today, but because of the really strong hurricanes that have affected our region this year we have to focus a great deal of attention as well on our economic recovery  as an entire region and how to  rebuild with the resilience and structural integrity to protect ourselves in the future,” said CTO Secretary General Hugh Riley.

This year’s keynote speaker will be former National League Football player Dorsey Levens.