CASTRIES, St. Lucia (CMC):

Caribbean hoteliers plan to push LIAT shareholder governments into action to lower regional airfares as they seek to cope with a fall off in the intra Caribbean travel, an industry official has revealed.

Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) chairperson, Berthia Parle, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that leaders of the three shareholder govern-ments Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua, Owen Arthur of Barbados and Ralph Gon-salves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines - will be lobbied because of the devastating impact airfares were having on Caribbean travel.

"It is a very serious situation and the middle to lower end of our markets will suffer exclusively. We have seen a major decline so somehow we have to get together with the three governments that own LIAT to see what can be done to encourage intra Caribbean travel again."

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Former Caribbean trade negotiator Sir Shridath Ramphal says the Caribbean did not benefit much during the 10-year term of outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"Blair identified parts of the Caribbean as a holiday destination, to that extent he identified with us but he didn't identify British government policy with the needs of the Caribbean.

"Certainly Britain did not deliver the kind of support to the Caribbean in the really important economic issues in the WTO (World Trade Organisation), in negotiations with the European Union that I think we had the right to expect Britain to do. Blair wasn't focused on the Caribbean," Sir Shridath told the Caribbean Media Corporation.

Blair announced Thursday that he would step down on June 27 as Labour Party leader and British Prime Minister.

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (CMC):

Head of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) Alec Sanguenetti says regional hoteliers suffered a significant loss during the just concluded 2007 Cricket World Cup (CWC) held in the Caribbean for the first time ever.

While not disclosing any figures, Sanguenetti said that the number of visitors who booked into hotels at the eight host nations were "extremely disappointing".

"I will be very frank, the word disaster was quite commonly use as the expected numbers which at one time was put at 100,000 which we always cautioned was not practical and our position was well known on this, never materialised," Sanguenetti told the Caribbean Media Corporation during the 11th annual Caribbean Tourism Investment Conference (CHIC) that ended on Thursday.

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (CMC):

Workers employed by the Grenada Port Authority (GPA) have returned to their jobs after a brief strike in support of the dismissal of 10 daily paid workers.

The Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) said that the workers had been victimised and demanded their reinstatement.

But GPA manager Ambrose Phillip has denied the allegation in a letter to TAWU president Chester Humphrey.

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (CMC):

Antigua and Barbuda's Tourism Minister Harold Lovell says discussions are being held to address the high cost of air travel throughout the Caribbean, but ruled out the introduction of low cost fares in the future.

"At the end of the day what we want to ensure is that the airline can at least sustain itself in the short term, and at the same time adjust the fare structure on individual routes," Lovell said.

He said while there were concerns related to the cost of travel, he is nonetheless satisfied that the taxpayers in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, the main shareholders of the regional airline Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT), were no longer being called upon to subsidise the airline.

BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC):

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Foreign Ministers (COFCOR) were meeting with their Central American counterparts yesterday in a bid to strengthen relations between the two regions.

Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay, who assumed the chairmanship of COFCOR, said Belize accepted the mandate to act as a bridge between the Caribbean and Central America, especially in the areas of climate change, trade relations and integration.