Tourism a major talking point at CARICOM Meeting in Guyana

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS (FEBRUARY 20^TH 2017) – Proposals from the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) for Advancing a Regional Tourism Agenda, particularly through Public/Private Sector Partnerships have been accepted by Caribbean leaders.

At the recent meeting of the 28^th Inter-Sessional in Guyana, Caribbean leaders also noted that the UN World Tourism Organisation Global Conference on Building Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism for Development is to be held for the first time in the Region in Montego Bay in November 2017.

The CARICOM Heads acknowledged the importance of transportation and facilitation of travel, human resource development, the creative industries and marketing as well as competitiveness and financing for the sustainability of Tourism.

Heads of Government agreed that public-private sector partnerships, guiding the development and marketing of tourism for the Caribbean, needed to be more effective and requested that the marketing of tourism encompass, in particular, the eco-tourism product of mainland Member States – Belize, Guyana and Suriname.

“With regard to travel, Heads of Government called for an urgent meeting of the Council for Trade and Development (COTED)-Transportation to address air transport issues in particular, including those related to the tourism sector,” said the communiqué, who noted that in that context, Heads of Government supported the establishment of an Interim Tourism Working Group comprising representation from the CARICOM Secretariat, CTO and the CHTA with the mandate to coordinate with regional public and private sector stakeholder groups, the development of specific solutions which can be advanced in priority areas including the preparation of a pilot region-wide public relations and marketing initiative for 2017/2018 for presentation to the Thirty-Eighth Regular Meeting of the Conference.

The Caribbean leaders noted that 2017 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year for Sustainable Tourism Development and welcomed the invitation of Jamaica to attend the UN World Tourism Organisation Global Conference on Building Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism for Development to be held for the first time in our Region in Montego Bay in November 2017.

No representative from the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis attended the Inter-Sessional – and there has been no official statement from the Office of Prime Minister Harris on his absence or that of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ambassador to CARICOM.