CHA Seeks to Harmonize Caribbean Tourism Policies

Tourism needs more than ten minutes on the CARICOM agenda; it should be something that should be there permanently, said Berthia M. Parle, president of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), in a recent BBC Caribbean Service interview.

"We need to agree on how to move forward and on how to maximize the gains derived from tourism for the benefit of the people of the region," she insisted. Her words came at the end of an extensive visit to Europe that included industry meetings in London and Turkey and exchanges in the Hague with leading figures in the European Parliament and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of nations.

In the interview, Parle noted the positive outlook for the industry but said the region needed to continue developing new strategies. In addition to promoting the image of sand, sea and sun that for many visitors defined the Caribbean tourism product, the region, she said, needed to diversify its market through the development of nature, heritage and sports tourism.

She also noted that the development of health tourism and new marketing initiatives for outdoor spas offered further avenues for development. Reflecting on the need for the tourism industry - now the single largest contributor to the region´s growth - to be given a more prominent place on the regional political agenda, the CHA President urged CARICOM leaders to take the industry more seriously.

Earlier, on November 24, she had met at the time of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly held in the Hague, an audience interested in tourism policy and it having a greater role in exchanges between the EU and ACP.