Tourism

​(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Travel and Tourism statistics will be in focus this week in Roseau, Dominica, as Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States continue to place greater emphasis on the development and use of statistics to respond to tourism and trade information needs.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ministers of Agriculture wrapped up a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) Friday, recording movement on the linkages between agriculture and tourism and agreeing on the need for intensified action to address the transport of goods within the Region.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     In the wake of calls to harness the resources of sports for development, the CARICOM Council on Human and Social Development (COHSOD) at their 22nd Meeting in Georgetown, last week, agreed to establish a Regional Task Force on Sports Tourism to develop a strategy for harnessing the Region’s potential in sports.

The COHSOD, which focused on Youth Sports and Culture, reviewed evidence to support the claim that Sport Tourism could yield significant social and economic gains for the Region.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) which started its operations this month under Interim Director, Dr. Jerome Walcott, former Minister of Health, Barbados was a subject of discussion at the Council of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, held during the Market Place Conference in Nassau The Bahamas on 22 January 2012

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As efforts continue in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to insulate the tourism sector from the downturn in global economies, the Government of The Bahamas, the CARICOM Secretariat and the Latin America and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) have collaborated to convene the First Regional Seminar on Tourism, 31 August-1 September, in The Bahamas.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat Programme Manager for Culture and Community Development, Dr Hilary Brown is of the opinion that the Caribbean needs to do more to strengthen its heritage tourism product.

She believes that “much more could be done” to develop the Region’s natural and built heritage which is an invaluable resource in building Heritage Tourism.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     The critical importance of tourism to the Caribbean Region coupled with the sector’s vulnerability to the negative impacts of major global crises necessitated that the Region intensified its quest for development finance to support the industry.

This view was expressed by Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, CARICOM Secretary-General (ag) at the opening of the Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit in Brussels, Belgium on 14 March 2011.

CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)    Predictions by World Travel and Tourism Council suggest that by 2021, the direct contribution of travel and tourism to Caribbean Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be 16.4bn Euros.
The Council also predicted that the sector’s wider economic impact on the Region will be 50.83 billion Euros and its total contribution to employment is projected to be 2.76 million jobs.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has received the assurances of the Government of Italy's representative in the Region that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are among the areas in which Italy is interested in increased cooperation with CARICOM. While giving this commitment to the Secretary-General of CARICOM, His Excellency Mr. Edwin Carrington on Monday (July12), Italy's Plenipotentiary Representative to CARICOM, His Excellency Mr. Gerardo Carante proposed a mechanism of consultations between CARICOM and Italy on all matters of common interest.

Caribbean governments have agreed to implement an aggressive advertising programme to get tourism, the main foreign exchange earner for a number of countries, back on track following the decline in arrivals after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

This was a major decision emerging from the Summit on Tourism held at Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island, The Bahamas 8-9 December 2001, under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Rt. Hon Hubert Ingraham.