Par­adise Is­land, The Ba­hamas–Caribbean Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion's (CHTA) Board of Di­rec­tors has called on Caribbean Heads of Gov­ern­ment to con­vene a re­gion­al sum­mit on tourism, with­in the next six months to dis­cuss key is­sues af­fect­ing the in­dus­try.

A res­o­lu­tion ap­proved by the CHTA Board on Sun­day called on Caribbean lead­ers to con­sid­er with in­dus­try lead­ers all ma­jor as­pects of tourism, in­clud­ing air­lift, trav­el fa­cil­i­ta­tion, mar­ket­ing, vis­i­tor se­cu­ri­ty, hu­man re­source de­vel­op­ment, the en­vi­ron­ment and new ways to en­cour­age GDP growth through a com­mon ap­proach to the prob­lems fac­ing the in­dus­try.

CHTA said there is need for gov­ern­ments and the tourism in­dus­try to con­tin­ue work­ing close­ly to­geth­er to in­crease em­ploy­ment, for­eign ex­change, in­vest­ment and GDP growth at a time of eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty and the chal­lenges the tourism in­dus­try as a whole now faces. Caribbean coun­tries are high­ly de­pen­dent on the tourism for rev­enues and em­ploy­ment.