Caribbean Business Cruise Stregnthens Bonds with Local Entrepreneurs

The Caribbean Business Cruise promises to empower micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from the Caribbean with unique opportunities for business growth and networking. While docked in Saint Lucia on February 18th, the organisers engaged with local craftspeople at the port. From February 16 to 23, 2025, the CBC will set sail, bringing together entrepreneurs, project managers, and business professionals from across the Caribbean.

Isabelle Adonis, Consultant with the Business Cruise, highlights the opportunity of continued business marketing and growth within the Caribbean.

“The Caribbean is not only for culture and music, but also for business and production and training. So it is very important for us to mix training and production and say we have products from the Caribbean – from French-spoken parts and English-spoken parts,” she explained.

The cruise will visit multiple islands, including Barbados, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Onboard, participants will engage in high-quality networking, workshops, conferences, and roundtable discussions, all designed to enhance their business acumen and market reach.

Adonis highlights that a crucial part of the cruise’s philosophy is breaking barriers in the region to facilitate business development: “We have the opportunity to speak in English and in French. And we prove that when you practice, when you are in a group, you have to understand what they mean and you have to be understandable. So you just find a way to communicate,” she said.

While being docked at Castries, Adonis says the Business Cruise has already formed a strong partnership with vendors. “I just had a talk with the president of the Chamber of Trade and Craft and he said, okay Isabel, we have an event at the end of this year. We will invite those people to come to our fair and we will invite them,” she explained.

The CBC not only offers an exceptional platform for strategic networking but also catalyses business cooperation and development. At each stopover, MSMEs will step off the ship to participate in business-to-business meetings and workshops, organised in collaboration with local support organisations.