With this July/August 2001 edition, Caribbean Beat reaches its 50th issue. So please forgive us if we celebrate a little.

When the magazine was launched in January 1992 — almost ten years ago — we set out to give an insider’s view of the Caribbean. The great attractions of the Caribbean — the sun, the sea, the sand — were already familiar from a million brochures, and are still the things that drive many visitors to our region. They have featured prominently in the pages of Caribbean Beat, along with the fine restaurants and shopping and the other things that visitors rightly expect.

But we have tried to show how much else there is to the Caribbean. We’re not just a sunny, sandy beach. The Caribbean is a fascinating mix of peoples and languages and cultures, a region with brilliant artists and writers, actors and singers, dancers and athletes; it is a region buzzing with innovative music, architecture, fashion, carnivals and festivals. There is so much going on in the Caribbean, in the lives of all Caribbean people. That’s what we have tried to report in the pages of Caribbean Beat.

After ten years, we’re still scratching the surface. But we know we are on the right track because of the steady stream of support and appreciation we have had, not only from visitors to the Caribbean, but from Caribbean people in every corner of the region.

All of us at Caribbean Beat would like to thank our readers, especially those who write to us with comments, support, suggestions or criticisms. We’d like to thank the many Caribbean writers, photographers and illustrators who have contributed to these pages over the first ten years, along with our designer Russel Halfhide and our sales team. We’d like to thank the many Caribbean and international advertisers who have supported Caribbean Beat, especially those who have been with us since the beginning — a tremendous vote of confidence for any publication.

And of course, our thanks to BWIA. It would have been so easy to fill Caribbean Beat with romantic tropical stereotypes. But BWIA didn’t do that. It chose to showcase the real Caribbean, complete with its people and its culture. BWIA’s loyalty to the Caribbean people has been proven over 60 years, and this was another example of it.

For more Caribbean Beat milestones…

• The Beat goes on: Caribbean Beat turns 25
• On the Beat: Skye Hernandez on Beat’s 20th anniversary
• Jeremy Taylor on 20 years of Caribbean Beat [ONLINE EXCLUSIVE]
• Twenty years of covering the Beat
• Cover stories: celebrating 75 issues of Caribbean Beat