(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  Tourism will be the sole item facing the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as the working sessions of the 29th Meeting get underway on Wednesday 2 July, 2008 at the Hibiscus Room of the Jolly Beach Resort in Bolans, Antigua and Barbuda.

Eleven of the Heads of Government of the Member States of CARICOM and four of the Heads of Government of the Associate Members will focus on matters related to Tourism, the single largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Community. This one-day focus on Tourism was agreed to at the 19th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference at Nassau, The Bahamas in March, 2008.

The leaders will discuss the issues identified by a Task Force presided over by Senator the Honourable Allan Chastenet, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation of Saint Lucia as they search for options to enhance regional tourism in the context of current international trends. These trends include rising prices of food and fuel and cutbacks in routes by airlines.

Over the course of the three-day meeting, the Heads of Government will have an exchange of views with the Honourable Felipe Perez Roque, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, and His Excellency Jose Miguel Insulza Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS). These discussions are being held against the background of three upcoming summit meetings, the first of which is scheduled for Havana with the President of Cuba in December 2008. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the Summit of the Americas are both scheduled to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.

The Heads of Government expected to discuss plans for the CARICOM/Spain Summit scheduled for 11 July 2008 in Madrid, the CARICOM/Canada Summit scheduled for the last quarter of 2008, the African Union Diaspora Summit scheduled for10 October 2008 in South Africa, and a meeting of regional and sub-regional integration groupings of Latin America and the Caribbean to be held in Brazil in December.

The meeting will end on Friday 4 July, 2008 with a ceremony at the Sandals Grande Hotel marking the 35th Anniversary of CARICOM.