Caribbean Tourism Organisation

BRIDGETOWN – Following several recent development initiatives, the Research and Information Technology Department of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has expanded its repertoire of resources for members to measure visitor satisfaction, profile the region's visitors, assess market performance and estimate economic impact. Together, these technology tools reinforce the CTO's policy of supplying a well-rounded analysis of tourism developments throughout the Caribbean.
"These new tools, designed to generate actionable data about our visitors and potential visitors, have increased the relevance of membership in the CTO for both destinations and the companies that are our allied members," said Hugh Riley, Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer of CTO.
"As we begin the new year, we encourage members to use these vital resources to fine-tune marketing strategies, promptly react to visitor satisfaction levels and capture a more lucrative share of the global tourism market," said Riley, adding: "Many of the resources provided by the CTO are included free to destinations with paid-up membership dues. These tools help officials make more informed decisions, paving the way for enhancing tourism to the Caribbean."
CTO enters 2017 with new and improved programs that utilize industry-leading technology to monitor, analyze and report tourism data. These programs include the following:
The CTO-Tourism Information Management System (CTO-TIMS) is a web-based system designed to collect, store and process a wide range of arrival and departure data from embarkation and disembarkation sources. CTO-TIMS is an upgrade of the existing Management Information System for Tourism (MIST), featuring more advanced hardware and software, as well as new reporting tools for better visualization. The application, which is accessible through standard browsers, allows tourism policymakers to keep up-to-date with developing trends and identify potential concerns.
CTO has also developed the Survey Analytics System (SAS) online database and reporting tool to simplify and expedite the reporting process of visitor exit surveys. Member countries will be able to generate numerous types of reports as soon as the information is processed and uploaded to SAS, eliminating lengthy wait times.
Visitor Intelligence Database for Analytics (VIDA) is a geodemographic segmentation system featuring demographic and psychographic characteristics of visitors within major source markets. Using VIDA, CTO members can access detailed reports about the age, gender, interests, spending patterns and preferred activities of visitors from around the world. Those detailed reports will help tourism executives to align their marketing outreach with the specific types of visitors best suited to their country and facilitate more targeted marketing and product development strategies.
The CTO's Guestpitality Total Visitor Satisfaction is the only program of its kind, specifically targeting Caribbean destinations to drive improved visitor satisfaction and aid sustainable tourism development. It allows countries to measure visitor satisfaction levels while the guests are still in the destination. Visitors answer questions about their experience within seven key sub-sectors (Customs and Immigration, transport and infrastructure, safety, accommodations, restaurants, attractions and shopping) enabling tourist boards and ministries to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their countries and, ultimately, improve visitor satisfaction and retention rates.
One more new initiative developed by the CTO is the Tourism Satellite Account Facilitation Tool (TSAFT), an online application that shows how tourism directly impacts each country's economy. TSAFT automatically processes the data required and generates the Tourism Satellite Account's ten tables, reducing the time it takes to organize and assess the data. With this tool, policymakers can accurately depict tourism's role in a country's gross domestic product (GDP) and employment.
In addition to the programs, CTO has revamped its Tourism Executive Brief, a quarterly publication which provides market intelligence to tourism executives and keeps them up-to-date with the latest developments in the industry. The Brief covers information on the economic state of Caribbean source markets and emerging markets and ways in which they affect travel to the region. A new section has been added to the Brief to report on consumer behavior and trends among tourists.
For more information on the Caribbean Tourism Organization please visit www.OneCaribbean.org. Get the latest CTO updates on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ctotourism. Connect with CTO on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CaribbeanTourismOrganization.

About The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), with headquarters in Barbados, offices in New York and London and representation in Canada, is the Caribbean's tourism development agency comprising membership of the region's finest countries and territories including Dutch, English, French and Spanish-speaking, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members. The CTO's vision is to position the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round, warm weather destination, and its purpose is Leading Sustainable Tourism - One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean.

Among the benefits to its members the organization provides specialized support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning & execution and research & information technology.

Theresa M. Oakes
KTCpr
(516) 594-4100
Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)