Bahamas Receives Open Letter Endorsement as Tourism Leader
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas received an Open Letter of endorsement and support from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as a leader in tourism, particularly in the region.
The letter was presented to Prime Minister Perry Christie by UNTWO Secretary General Taleb Rifai in a ceremony at Government House, during the Small Island Developing States conference held February 19 to 20, 2014.
In accepting the Letter, the Prime Minister called on the region to continue to share its resources with each other in order to create the feeling of one destination and one Caribbean.
Conference host, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe, underscored the importance of receiving such an honor – at a time when the country is celebrating 50 years of tourism.
“It is an open letter that seeks to endorse The Bahamas and to support all that we do in our number one industry,” he said.
“The Bahamas is celebrating 50 years of Tourism. It was in 1964 when we became a country that recognized tourism fully as an industry and then we travelled the road that ensured that we could do all that we could to lift our people from one state to the next.
Mr. Wilchcombe said he and the Secretary General of UNWTO met at a conference in Dubai last year and discussed the possibility of the SIDS Conference being held in The Bahamas.
Also at that Dubai meeting, 57 Heads of Government agreed to honor member-states for making “Tourism and Travel” a vital contributor to the global development agenda and affording a unique role in building strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.
“Tourism is an industry that has worked. It could work for all of us if we work together as a region and have the determination to ensure that that single industry will have all the people of the Caribbean, if we understand that our commonalities and similarities are greater than our differences,” Mr. Wilchcombe said.
UNWTO Secretary General in presenting the Prime Minister with the Open Letter said, “It was in Dubai that we decided that The Bahamas is a very important part of this network of nations to receive this Open Letter.
“An Open Letter, that is part of what we call the Golden Book of Tourism, is a letter which we decided to submit to Heads of State and Heads of Government who believe in their hearts that tourism is a force for good and that tourism is a transformative force in social economic development.
“It’s a recognition to you personally and to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas of how important you are to the international tourism community, in travel and tourism.”
The Prime Minister said that The Bahamas kept working on a model of being able to generate a tourism industry that moved from being a seasonal one to full time.
“We witnessed over the years our sister Caribbean countries moving more and more to the conclusion that that was the right way to go. And as we were challenged in our region with bananas, sugar and had to recalibrate our economies, which is still being done, tourism loomed larger and larger and more meaningful,” he said.
Added the Prime Minister, “There is no industry that is more effective, more efficient and as quick as the tourism industry in generating economic activity. And when we look at unemployment particularly for the young generation in our region, we should be alarmed and it ought to propel us into policies that are calculated to cause there to be the necessary improvements in being able to attract more people to the region and have them spend more money.
He said he was happy to hear that the region is receiving 25 million visitors annually. Travel and tourism also accounts directly and indirectly for about three percent to five percent of global GDP, as well as 30 percent of the world’s export of services.
“It is a massive multibillion dollar economy and the challenge for the region is how much of it remains in the region and how much of it circulates in our economy for the betterment of our economy, bringing it one of the tenets of being able to ensure the people of the country feel the impact of the industry to ensure its continuity,” the Prime Minister said.
