[Fwd: CARIBBEAN: Jamaica Gets $10 Million for Community Tourism]

Jamaica gets $10 million for community tourism

SOURCE: Jamaica Observer

MARK CUMMINGS, Observer staff reporter
Wednesday, May 21, 2003

WESTERN BUREAU -- The Caribbean Regional HRD Programme for Economic
Competitiveness, a Canadian International Development Agency funding
organisation, has allocated $10 million to assist in the development of
the island's community-based tourism.

According to CEO of Countrystyle Community Tourism Network, Diana
McIntyre-Pike, the funds will be used to:

* assist in the staging of the first Jamaica Community Tourism
Symposium/International Institute of Peace through Tourism Caribbean
Community Tourism Conference, to be held in Montego Bay later this
month;

* training programmes in community tourism, which include product
development and marketing;

* the development of a Web Site; and

* the publishing of a handbook on community tourism.

There has been a concerted effort to push community tourism as an
alternative to the traditional forms offered by resorts. It has been
mooted that visitors want more than the standard sun, sand, and sea and
want a chance to learn about the local culture.

McIntyre-Pike told the recently ended fourth Caribbean Media Exchange on
sustainable tourism (CMEx) in Montego Bay that community tourism has
become internationally recognised.

"I just have returned from a community tourism summit in New York, where
I met some people from the Kellogg's Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers
Foundation and a number of others. There, discussions were held at a
high level on where to go forward with it (community tourism) financial
and otherwise," McIntyre -Pike told the conference.

"Dominica is already on board with us, along with St Lucia, Cayman,
Trinidad and St Kitts; so now we are moving in a very positive direction
to get more attention from the Caribbean Hotel Association and other
entities in relation to community tourism," she added.

She stressed that community tourism has great potential for poverty
alleviation and is capable of leading the Caribbean forward because of
the integrated approach.

"It (community tourism) includes eco-tourism, health tourism, cultural
tourism, adventure tourism and we could go on and on with acronyms,"
McIntyre-Pike remarked.

Community tourism, she said, has given rise to a lot of excitement in
communities, because the people have been given a chance to participate
fully in the tourism industry.

"They now see that they can participate in the tourism industry for what
it really is, which is a relationship with the visitors and themselves
and the development of the tourism product," she said.
Received on Wed May 21 14:55:29 2003