WITT Snapshot: West Indies Tourism Today Brief

Daily tourism news and events - in the Caribbean - from the Caribbean - for the Caribbean

News that is actionable is about timeliness, relevance, accuracy and credibility.

Unique reports of tourism related news, captured from most* local Caribbean News Services. Primarily intended for local MSME business owners however everyone benefits saving valuable time. The goal is to deliver available, relevant news in a light-weight and low cost format.

The product is a daily round-up of news about the tourism sector focussing on the Caribbean region. News about the people, destinations, air travel, promotions, tourism data and all matters relating to Caribbean tourism as published by local Caribbean news sources.

With the Europe Media Monitor service as its core, using advanced information extraction techniques to gather relevant news. After including regional news outlets, the result is an aggregation of about 90 feeds. The objective is to be informative and inclusive, from a Caribbean point of view. To my knowledge, this is the only service that offers this unique perspective.

* Local services that provide a news feed.

Who may find this useful?

Targeted to individuals with a specific interest in tourism in the insular Caribbean.

• Any travel/tourism related supplier
• Tour companies and suppliers
• Destination Management / Marketing
• Travel agencies

For at least one in ten people (and maybe as many as one in six or seven) — tourism is not a leisure activity, it is a means to earn income and a business opportunity. For some, it is a way of life. This reality spawns the need for news media, as well as travel and tourism vested interests to deliver relevant information and resources. This helps these people do business and keep up with trends, best practices and competitive business strategies within their own destination as well as from other places.

Unique Features:

• Very accurate and reliable compilation of available news items
• Consistent with generally accepted ' fair use' practices of news aggregation, copyright and trademark ownership is maintained
• Standard HTML - compatible with mobile devices - read anywhere, anytime; Selected reports available in KML (for Google Earth).
• News items (mostly) in English, are compiled daily. Main report includes items posted within the last three days
• Presented in a concise, uncluttered format: text only with link to original news item - fast download, no distractions or sensory overload
• Improved readability while preserving the integrity of the news item
• Includes a count of the relevant news items as well as the total number of news items in the feeds
• A compilation of current travel advisories as well as consular information from Global Affairs Canada.

Tourism is increasingly valuable as an economic force. In order to benefit local people, reporting more - and better - tourism related news from local Caribbean sources needs to be promoted. Therefore, future work will concentrate on finding news items and local regional news outlets.

It is important to note that this is not a marketing report. Most marketing news and press releases originate in source markets outside the Caribbean. These are not included in this reporting method.

West Indies Tourism Today: WITT Report (wittreport.com)

Press Release (PDF)