Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. - Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) President Josef Forstmayr has started the “Tourism Is Key” promotion campaign, to stress the importance of travel and tourism for the economies of the Caribbean, the zone that most depends on tourism than any other region in the world.

The ad campaign was launched for the first time in Jamaica during the meeting of CARICOM and Heads of Government and will be launched for the first time in Dominican Republic during the Annual Dominican Tourism Exchange: DATE, organized by the National Hotels and Tourism Association (ASONAHORES) in Punta Cana’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Forstmayr said the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the Jamaica Hotels and Tourism Association (JHTA) and the CHTA support the official announcements for the campaign. "To continue viable being in the future, we must guarantee the sustainability of our industry tourism today."

"It’s fundamental to reach a consensus between our leaders and the public in general, so that travel and tourism receive all the support it deserves for being the Caribbean’s most important export," said the also director of Jamaica’s Round Hill Hotel and Villas, in Montego Bay.

In 2004 a WTTC study of the Caribbean, funded by the CHTA, found that travel and tourism will have an extraordinary contribution for the Caribbean in the next 10 years, but cautions that the industry’s impact isn’t generally understood by officials government, the industry itself or the host communities.

“The research and economic marketing perspective related to the tourism sector in the Caribbean are generally insufficient, in terms of quality as in terms of quantity as well," Forstmayr said of the study’s findings.