Antigua Reveals Five Pillars of Growth for Tourism

Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation the Hon. John Maginley has identified the major areas of focus for his ministry in the year 2013. These were outlined in his recent contribution to the budget debate in the lower house on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Tourism, for 2013 will focus on five pillars of growth namely human resource development, product development, marketing and promotion, airlift and the creation of a strong enabling environment for the development of the sector.

The five pillars of growth were identified in an effort to achieve the primary objectives of the Ministry for 2013 which feature more importantly a need to create more and better jobs, a need to consolidate higher investment returns and a need to make businesses more sustainable so that they can promote greater sector growth. Furthermore there is an added thrust within the Ministry to raise awareness and support for the sustainable use of resources.

In the area of human resource development emphasis will be placed on training and capacity building, tourism awareness programs and voluntary certifications; building upon the recent collaboration with the OAS in 2012 which saw over 200 tourism and hospitality workers being trained in various fields.

According to Minister Maginley 2013 will see the implementation of projects from the Tourism Development Plan commissioned last year. He noted that “it is important to state that the sustainable governance of the tourism sector is crucial for the good management of the destination in collaboration with public and private players”. This is also the approach taken with regards to product development which the ministry intends to be market driven.

The core of the Minister’s presentation in Parliament centered on the 2013 marketing initiative which is outlined to be a new destination marketing strategy focused on upgrading Antigua and Barbuda’s brand and repositioning the destination in the tourism marketplace. The marketing plan also focuses on sales and operational marketing, a market intelligence system and an enhanced Connectivity Development Program.

A unique extension to the digital marketing approach is the commencement of a destination mobile smart-phone presence.  In February this year Antigua and Barbuda will be the first country to launch a fully functioning M-commerce APP relevant to IPAD and IPHONE users.

The Ministry of Tourism through the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority embarked on an aggressive airlift strategy in 2012 and will continue to focus on this as a priority area in 2013. The Hon. Minister of Tourism reported that Antigua and Barbuda’s tourism growth rate has been linear for the most part, and this trend is consistent with other major destinations in the Caribbean.