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 organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding 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.

Hugh Riley, the CTO’s Secretary General, said “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 its members to fully explore those possibilities.”

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 its footprint throughout the region is very important to Bitt Inc. and according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Rawdon Adams, as the largest single contributor to the Caribbean economy, tourism is absolutely critical to every single Caribbean nation’s well-being and development, and thus the MOU is very natural and necessary.

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 utilizes distributed ledger technology to offer efficient, cost-effective digital payment products and services through its Bitt Suite.