I had the opportunity to watch two webinars in the past months that talked about tourism in the Caribbean and Hawaii. Both webinars provided great information regarding what efforts were being made to help the tourism industry, what's available, and safety measures being taken. My thoughts and observations for each webinar are provided here.

Webinar - Future of Travel Caribbean Comeback

Travel Weekly Editor - Devin Kinasz was the host/moderator of the webinar and interviewed others such as Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism in Jamaica, and Samantha Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer of Sunwing, a travel airline in Canada. In total there were 8 different speakers.

Neil Walters commented that there are 26 destinations open and expects visitation to increase late this year and the beginning of 2021. Canada is the Caribbean's main market which is something I found interesting and would have never guessed.

I could see the different positions that the speakers held which opened my mind to opportunities and careers available within the tourism industry like Marketing, Editors for travel sites, and even being part of your local tourism board or association.

Webinar - Hawaiian Islands Virtual Event

The first speaker for the webinar is Kainoa Daines who is the Director of Culture & Product Development of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau. The very first value or topic spoken of was the term "Malama" which is to take care. I liked that he stated it is both our responsibility.

Another speaker that I enjoyed listening to is Maile Brown who is the Director of Marketing for the Kaua`i visitors Bureau. Many if not all of the information shared was directed towards travel agents or travel agencies in an effort to help them understand what their clients must do to visit the islands and what activities are available for them. Mountain Tubing is one of those activities that I've heard much about but never had a chance to do. I was fairly surprised to see how many businesses were operating and available to cater to tourists.

Some opportunities or careers I noticed are directly tied to the activities offered. I could see myself being really hands-on and being involved with those outdoor activities like operating ATV tours or something like that. One thing that is made clear is that Hawaii needs tourism to survive.