HAMILTON?– There is “an urgent need” for Caribbean Heads of Government to come together and meet on tourism.
The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) board of directors said a tourism summit needs to take place within the next six months to meet on issues “adversely impacting” the region.
The last Heads Of Government Summit On Tourism was in July 2001.
Alex Sanguinetti, director general and CEO of the CHTA, said in a Press release that there is “an urgent need for a summit meeting at the highest level to deal with a variety of issues adversely impacting tourism to our region. CHTA will work diligently to make this summit meeting a reality”.
The CHTA board of directors issued the following proclamation following meetings during Caribbean Travel Marketplace in The Bahamas: “Recognizing the centrality of tourism to future Caribbean prosperity; the need for governments and the tourism industry as a whole to work more closely together; the unique capacity of the tourism industry, as outlined in the CHTA Tourism Is Key programme to increase employment, foreign exchange, investment and GDP growth at a time of economic uncertainty; and the challenges that the industry as a whole now faces; the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association’s board of directors calls on Caribbean Heads of Government to convene, within the next six months, a regional summit on tourism.”
He added: “If the Caribbean is to remain the world’s leading warm-weather tourism destination, [it needs] . . . as a matter of urgency a strategic approach that provides sustainable long-term growth in the Caribbean tourism economy.
“To this end, the CHTA board calls on Caribbean Heads of Government to consider with industry partners all major aspects of tourism, including airlift, travel facilitation, marketing, visitor security, human resource development, the environment, and new ways to encourage [gross domestic product] growth through a common approach to the problems facing the industry.” (Bermuda Sun)
