BRIDGETOWN – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the region’s tourism development agency, has entered into an agreement with blockchain technology company, Bitt Inc., aimed at facilitating the implementation of more efficient payment processes for tourism-related products and services.
The two organisations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) this morning at the CTO’s headquarters in Barbados, under which Bitt’s digital wallet and merchant applications will be promoted to help foster broader economic participation in community-based tourism and related sectors.
“The Caribbean aims to fully examine the advantages offered by new financial technology. In particular, blockchain financial services have the potential to advance the objectives of specific programmes and activities within the tourism sector, and the CTO has a responsibility on behalf of our members to fully explore those possibilities. Our memorandum of understanding with Bitt underscores the importance of collaborating with this forward-thinking, cutting edge, Caribbean company with whom we have a shared commitment to the economic success of our region,” Hugh Riley, the CTO’s secretary general, said.
Both organisations anticipate that by leveraging digital currency, the Caribbean region could become a more integrated economy in terms of the ease of doing business for visitors who move through multiple regional destinations.
“Expanding Bitt’s footprint throughout the region is very important to us because we know how transformational our technology can be. That’s particularly the case for the region’s informal sector, for the unbanked and by extension for the economy. Tourism is the largest single contributor to the Caribbean economy and is absolutely critical to every single Caribbean nation’s well-being and development. Thus we see this as a very natural and necessary association,” Rawdon Adams, Bitt’s chief executive officer, said.
The arrangement is for an initial three-year period, but it can be extended by mutual agreement.
The Barbados-based Bitt Inc. is a financial technology company that utilises distributed ledger technology to offer efficient, cost-effective digital payment products and services through its Bitt Suite. (PR)
