Carnival Corporation has held a series of high-level meetings and industry engagements in Bermuda, the company said in a statement.

One of these was the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) Air Connectivity Summit.

Marie McKenzie, senior vice president of government and destination affairs at Carnival Corporation, participated in the panel “Routes Across the Region” at the Hamilton Princess on Feb. 24., which addressed the intra-regional travel landscape.

Panelists explored challenges in inter-island connectivity and multi-destination travel in the Caribbean while identifying opportunities for carriers to strengthen regional flight networks, cruise-air connectivity and homeporting, all thought to be critical to unlocking the region’s full tourism potential.

McKenzie pointed out that, with five Carnival Corporation cruise lines homeporting directly in the Caribbean, there is a major opportunity to better engage regional carriers to link local communities to these ships.

“Rather than solely relying on guests flying in from Europe or North America, we should be leveraging regional air connectivity to make it easier for people within the Caribbean to access these homeports. By connecting our local air and sea routes, we can create a truly integrated, multi-destination experience that benefits the entire region,” she said.

Other panelists included representatives from Breeze Travel Solutions, Virgin Atlantic, interCaribbean Airways and Sunrise Airways.

In addition, Carnival participated in other strategic meetings that the company says emphasize its long-term investment in Bermuda.

This included a tourism product development discussion with the Bermuda Tourism Authority that focused on future shore excursion opportunities.

A security-focused meeting was also held with the Department of Marine & Ports Services and the Bermuda Land Management Corporation as part of a site visit to Heritage Wharf and King’s Wharf in the Royal Naval Dockyard.

The visit concluded with a meeting with Bermuda’s minister of tourism, Owen Darrell.