The Caribbean Tourism Organization's main objective is the development of sustainable tourism for the economic and social benefit of Caribbean people.
The CTO, with headquarters in Barbados, is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency. Its member countries and territories include the Dutch, English, French and Spanish, as well as a myriad of private sector allied members.
Among other functions, the organization provides specialized support and technical assistance in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, human resource development, event planning and execution, and research and information technology.
The CTO is a marketing and business development entity dedicated to promoting the Caribbean brand worldwide.
The CTO was established in 1989 with the merger of the Caribbean Tourism Association (founded in 1951) and the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Center (founded in 1974)
The body is primarily involved in the joint promotion and marketing of Caribbean tourist destinations in North America and Europe.
Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of the Lesser Antilles. With 261 square kilometres (101 sq mi) of territory, and roughly 50,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere, in both area and population, as well as the world's smallest sovereign federation. The country is a Commonwealth realm, with Charles III as King and head of state.
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 300 km (190 mi) east of Puerto Rico. The 87-square-kilometre (34 sq mi) island is divided roughly 60:40 between the French Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but the Dutch part is more populated than the French part. The division dates to 1648. The northern French part comprises the Collectivity of Saint Martin and is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic. The southern Dutch part comprises Sint Maarten and is one of four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Even though the island is an overseas possession of two European Union member states, only the French part of the island is part of the EU.
The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. They are distinguished from the large islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc which begins east of Puerto Rico and swings south through the Leeward and Windward Islands almost to South America and then turns west along the Venezuelan coast as far as Aruba. Barbados is isolated about 100 miles east of the Windwards.
The British West Indies (BWI) were colonised British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, British Guiana and Trinidad and Tobago. Other territories included Bermuda, and the former British Honduras.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance between countries and territories in the Eastern Caribbean. It also performs the role of spreading responsibility and liability in the event of natural disaster.
The Atlantic Time Zone is a geographical region that keeps standard time—called Atlantic Standard Time (AST)—by subtracting four hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), resulting in UTC−04:00. AST is observed in parts of North America and some Caribbean islands. During part of the year, some portions of the zone observe daylight saving time, referred to as Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT), by moving their clocks forward one hour to UTC−03:00. The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 60th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory.
In geography, the Caribbean Basin or Caribbean Proper is generally defined as the Caribbean Sea and any territories in or touching the Caribbean Sea. This means countries like Barbados and The Bahamas, which are culturally and politically Caribbean, are not included.
The Association of Caribbean States is an advisory association of nations centered on the Caribbean Basin. It was formed with the aim of promoting consultation, cooperation, and concerted action among all the countries of the Caribbean coastal area. The primary purpose of the ACS is to promote greater trade between the nations, enhance transportation, develop sustainable tourism, and facilitate greater and more effective responses to local natural disasters.
The Commonwealth Caribbean is the region of the Caribbean with English-speaking countries and territories, which once constituted the Caribbean portion of the British Empire and are now part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The term includes many independent island nations, British Overseas Territories and some mainland nations.
The High Commission of Canada in Barbados is Canada's main diplomatic mission to Barbados. The exact location is Bishop's Hill Court in Bridgetown, St. Michael. The auspices of the High Commission to Barbados also include issues involving the neighbouring Eastern Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as three British overseas territories: Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat. It also includes consular and trade services for Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Sint Maarten.
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island countries and 19 dependencies in three archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.
Future Centre Trust (FCT), also known previously as Counterpart Caribbean, is an environmental organization based on the Caribbean island of Barbados. FCT aims to work with wider organizations such as UNCED to concentrate on economic and tourist activity in Barbados that is based on sustainable development for future generations on the island, the region and the wider world. As of September 2009, the organisation is chaired by Mrs Vivian-Anne Gittens and pays specific attention to the education of children in the environment of Barbados.
The United Nations geoscheme for the Americas is an internal tool created and used by the UN's Statistics Division (UNSD) for the specific purpose of UN statistics.
Sint Maarten is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of 34 km2 (13 sq mi), it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the northern 56% of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint Martin. Sint Maarten's capital is Philipsburg. Collectively, Sint Maarten and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Dutch Caribbean.
Tourism is one of the Caribbean's major economic sectors, with 25 million visitors contributing $49 billion towards the area's gross domestic product in 2013, which represented 14% of its total GDP. It is often described as, "the most tourism-dependent region in the world".
The Caribbean or West Indies is a subregion of the Americas that includes the Caribbean Sea and its islands, some of which are surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some of which border both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean; the nearby coastal areas on the mainland are often also included in the region. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America.
The languages of the Caribbean reflect the region's diverse history and culture. There are six official languages spoken in the Caribbean:
A member state of the Caribbean Community is a state that has been specified as a member state within the Treaty of Chaguaramas or any other Caribbean state that is in the opinion of the Conference, able and willing to exercise the rights and assume the obligations of membership in accordance with article 29 of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Member states are designated as either More economically developed country (MDCs) or Less economically developed countries (LDCs). These designations are not intended to create disparity among member states. The Community was established by mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, but has since become a multilingual organisation in practice with the addition of Dutch-speaking Suriname in 1995 and French-speaking Haiti in 2002. There are fifteen full members of the Caribbean Community, four of which are founding members.
The foreign relations of the British Virgin Islands are largely conducted on behalf of the British Virgin Islands Government by the United Kingdom through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a result of the Territory's status as a British Overseas Territory. However the Constitution of the British Virgin Islands provides that this power is delegated to Premier and Ministers of Government in relation to certain specific areas:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Lesser Antilles refers to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in the Lesser Antilles. The Lesser Antilles is part of the Caribbean Area and is part of three missions. As of 2022, the LDS Church reported 9,959 members in 34 congregations in the Lesser Antilles.