Chairman of the Board of Directors of the The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and Minister of Tourism of the Bahamas, Obie Wilchcombe issued the warning at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of Great Britain Workshop in London recently.
Explaining the importance of the plan, the chairman said while Heads of Government of the CARICOM community have already signed off on the plan, assistance is also required from international donors in order to make its implementation a reality.
Wilchcombe argued that the need for a strategic plan is also based on the fact that the concepts of large and small, with respect to countries, are being redefined.
ﾓIn the new Global Village, small states and small enterprises are being seen as mini-states and mini-enterprises as our competition consolidates and vertically integrates into monopolies and oligopolies both nationally and across international borders,ﾔ he added.
Therefore, he said, CTO member states need to reposition the tourism industry in the global, hemispheric and regional negotiations on trade in services.
He further argued that these new meanings have also altered the decision-making process to the extent that if we as small states are to survive and avoid marginalisation in the international, political and commercial negotiations, global rules have to be established to ensure fair and free competition.
He continued: ﾓActs of God and acts of man have expanded the boundaries of tourism concerns, to the extent that a tourism minister is as preoccupied with the impacts of international terrorism and the terms of international trade as he was formerly with what now seems to be the rather more routine challenges of putting warm bodies into beds in a fiercely competitive global environment.ﾔ
Giving an overview of the scheme, he said it called for planning within a national framework of socio-economic, cultural and environmental development ensuring environmental best practices, a quality tourism product, a profitable industry, job and revenue generation, better air access, maximum benefits from cruise tourism, effective and sustained marketing, as well as effective and harmonious partnership between the public and private sectors.
Likewise, he explained the intention is to increase the economic impact of tourism, achieve a more equitable distribution of benefits by creating a sustainable tourism product, as well as ﾓachieving synergies and economies of scale by greater cooperation among all the elements of the industryﾔ.
ﾓA process of financial drip-feeding cannot successfully implement it. It cannot be implemented unless we are prepared to work together, country with country, public and private sector, in a state of harmony and of mutual respect. It cannot be implemented, unless we are prepared to commit to the necessary courses of action and then to follow through with those commitments,ﾔ he contended.
By Janelle Riley, The Barbados Advocate
