Tourism campaign planned
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association says it is planning a campaign to highlight the importance of tourism to island economies.

“CHTA executives will be putting together a proposed plan of action to include both advertising in local Caribbean newspapers as well as a public relations campaign …,” the association said in a statement.

This plan of action will be reviewed and discussed at a meeting in Miami next month.
The CHTA has in the past accused Caribbean Community (Caricom) governments of not giving tourism the importance it deserves.

Caricom leaders agreed last year that the industry, the lifeblood of several islands, should form part of the agenda of their annual summits, starting this year in July.

Wanted man escapes in St Lucia
A man wanted on a murder charge in Martinique has escaped from a prison in St Lucia. Martiniquan authorities want to try Fabian Cherubin for his suspected role in the kidnapping and killing of a French woman, and a string of robberies.

St Lucia’s national security minister Guy Mayers said he was sure the Martiniquans would be upset at the incident.

Cherubin was in prison awaiting the hearing of an appeal against his extradition.
Several other St Lucian suspects in the case, and whose images were found in the deceased woman’s camera, have since been handed over to authorities in Martinique.

St Maarten tries to form government
The governing administration has resigned on St Maarten, where the electoral system of proportional representation has traditionally resulted in unstable governments.

Leader of government on St Maarten, Sarah Wescot Williams, said the Democratic Party commissioners took the decision after losing a majority in the island council.
The resignation takes effect from June 8.

Negotiations are underway to form a new administration.

Caribbean for US census form?
Some New York politicians want to see New York City’s ethnic diversity better represented in the 2010 census.

For example, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Yvette Clarke want Caribbean to be offered as a choice when answering a question about ancestry and national origin. The senators and Representative Charles Rangel want people to be able to choose Dominican as a response to a question that asks whether responders are of Hispanic origin and where they came from.

The current choices include Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or “other.”