Tourism Trinidad & Tobago recently hosted a group of travel agents from India as a part of a familiarization visit to Trinidad and Tobago in the first week of September 2014.

The Bahamian sustainable tourism development expert, Earlston McPhee, said the traditional sun, sea and sand product is no longer adequate and tourism developers must incorporate the Caribbean’s culture and history in their offerings. “For the most part, we in the region continue to ignore consumer trends."

With major shifts in wealth and economic influence worldwide come significant shifts in global tourism trends as well. For example, as the moneyed-classes in China and Russia continue to grow, the market for outbound tourism from China and Russia grows as well.

The upward trend in tourism which saw the two million-barrier in arrivals broken last year has continued into 2014 and so far there is a 2.6 percent increase over the corresponding period of 2013 for Jamaica, the island nation's tourism minister was quoted as saying.