The countries of St Maarten, St Kitts and Jamaica are the leading countries that are able to comfortably host major conferences within the region. This was the disclosure made by Ackroyd Birmingham, Treasurer of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions and Conference Chairman. Birmingham made this disclosure in an exclusive interview while on a two days visit to St Kitts to evaluate the country's conference facilities.
He pointed out that despite several countries being regarded as prime tourist destination and demonstrating an interest in hosting several regional and international conferences they are 'handicap' with regards to properly hosting major or massive conference numbers. "It's really sad to know that only about five countries in the region as the ability and facilities to host conferences of about 400- 600 persons as all of the other countries are unable to do so," he said.
The Dominican Director said that one of the organization's biggest and greatest challenges is to get venues for their yearly rotating convention. "We have had to resort holding our conventions via cruise, visiting non member countries and repeating certain countries regularly because of this challenge. For instance we are staging this year's conference in St Maarten who is not a member because there are very few countries that has the capacity for such a conference," he said.
The Conference director was very high in praises for the governments of St Maarten, St Kitts, Jamaica noting that it will help to facilitate growth and advancement of those countries economies. He pointed out that he is exceptionally impressed with St Kitts noting that it's the smallest country and has demonstrated its ability to host these conventions. "I must note that I am really impressed with St Kitts as while you have much bigger countries like Trinidad, Barbados and other top tourism related islands like Antigua and St Lucia they are of no match to what this little country has been able to achieve via its facilities to host such major events like these," he declared.
He said that while many may be surprised with especially Trinidad and Barbados they shouldn't noting while these countries posses hotels that accommodate such a number having everything hosted in one hotel is what brings about the bottle neck. "Trinidad and Barbados do have more hotels than St Kitts but having a hotel that can host everything in one place is what brings about the difference," he said.
Birmingham said that St Kitts last hosted the convention in 2005 stating that they did an exceptionally good job at it with the assistance of Nevis Cooperative Credit union. He said that this year's 53rd annual international convention and 39th Annual General Meeting will be held from June 26th to June 30th at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino. Exploring the prospects as to which country will host next year's convention; Birmingham admitted that St Kitts is a front runner noting that the winner will be announced sometime soon. He added that while several countries have requested to host the convention meeting the criteria has been their difficulty. "we would really like to ensure that each member country gets n opportunity at hosting this prestigious convention however the reality of the situation is that only a small few qualifies for the opportunity to host and among these countries are St Maarten, St Kitts, Jamaica, Bahamas and a few others," he reiterated.
