For the first time, the Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) will cover the Caribbean’s premier travel and tourism event, Caribbean Marketplace, which opens in Montego Bay, Jamaica this weekend.

The nonprofit media organization, known for its dynamic symposia focused on using tourism to improve the lives of Caribbean people and their communities, will send a communications team to update Marketplace delegates as well as those unable to attend the January 16 to 18 convention.

The New Jersey-based CMEx and its lively Caribbean meetings provide media, governments, business and community organizations a neutral platform for the interactive discussion on using tourism as a development tool.

In Montego Bay, CMEx will gather and disseminate to its global audience fast breaking travel and tourism updates from the convention.

“So much will be breaking and emerging from Marketplace that we decided it was imperative for us to be there so we can add our little bit to sharing the enormous amount of news being generated during those three, packed days,” said Bevan Springer, President of the Caribbean Media Exchange.

“Given the overwhelming importance of tourism to the region’s economic viability we will deliver news briefs from the Caribbean convention in an easy-to-digest format on our website,” reported Springer, who writes a weekly Caribbean column in the historic New York Amsterdam News.

Springer will be joined by veteran journalist, tourism and development expert and CMEx Vice President Lelei LeLaulu, along with CMEx Director and Webmaster Pete Mansel who designed and frequently updates the CMEx website at www.cmexmedia.org.

News releases leading up to the event at the brand new Montego Bay Convention Centre are already being archived on the CMEx site.

Travel and tourism buyers and suppliers as well as allied members of the industry who are interested in submitting their news updates can email [email protected].

Since its inception in October 2001, CMEx has helped improve the quality of media coverage of sustainable tourism in the Caribbean; increased the media’s participation in the design of sustainable tourism policies; reminded government decision makers of the impact of tourism on other sectors of the economy; and highlighted the necessity of tourism to the economies of small island states.

“We will be in Jamaica to support the membership of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and we look forward to highlighting their role in maintaining the vibrancy and color of the region’s largest and most important industry,” Springer added.