[Fwd: CARIBBEAN: Regional Tourism Must 'Hold Its Own']

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CARIBBEAN: Regional Tourism Must 'Hold Its Own'
Date: 6 Aug 2002 18:30:05 -0000
From: jayne@sidsnet.org
To: tourism-newswire@sidsnet.org

Regional tourism must ‘hold its own’ - Tuesday 06, August-2002

The Caribbean tourism product must become a model of sustainability in
order to enhance its competitiveness, says a regional tourism executive.

Deputy secretary-general of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO),
Karen Forde-Warner, told a gathering of regional hoteliers, educators
and environmental officers the regional tourism product must be able to
be held up as an example of best environmental practice through improved
planning and management of natural assets.

Forde-Warner made the comments at a recent symposium and Green Hotels
Conference at the Half Moon Hotel in Jamaica. The conference was
organised by the Environmental Audits for Sustainable Tourism (EAST)
project and sponsored by the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association
(JHTA) and USAID.

The CTO executive said governments had a crucial role to play in
encouraging safe and sustainable environmental practices by creating the
appropriate legislative and regulatory framework and offering targeted
incentives for capital investments by tourism businesses that pursue
water and energy conservation and good solid waste management.

She said they must also establish lines of credit to enable small and
medium-sized hotels to invest in environmental improvements such as
equipment and services and training of staff.

Acknowledging that the tourism industry was the leading source of income
for most Caribbean countries, she said it was imperative that any
threats to the industry be firmly addressed and tackled.

“In looking at the issue of sustainability, no longer is it possible to
view the industry only in terms of arrivals, bed nights and
expenditure.”

“Our indicators of success have to be much broader because issues of
sustainability are highly inter-related and include the conservation and
responsible use of the natural environment, the preservation and
promotion of cultural assets, and the involvement of our communities and
citizens in the planning process and the more equitable distribution of
benefits from the industry,” she said .

Forde-Warner also told her audience sustainability also related to the
region’s ability to satisfy the demand for a safe, secure and healthy
environment, to provide or attract adequate air access and to attract
investment, and guarantee profitability and an adequate rate of return
on investment.

“To multiply the benefits throughout the economy, the industry must also
create and strengthen the linkages with other sectors within the
economy.

“We also need sustainable sources of funding, at both the national and
regional levels for marketing and tourism development programmes.”

She said that for tourism to become the vehicle for sustainable
development in the region, it has to be placed squarely within a
national and regional policy framework of social and economic
development.

The Caribbean cannot afford, said Forde-Warner, the luxury of continued,
unplanned and fragmented action since the multi-faceted impact of
tourism made it imperative that the development of the industry be fully
integrated at the policy, planning and delivery levels on a national and
regional scale.

SOURCE: Barbados Nation

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Received on Wed Aug 7 09:11:04 2002