The secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace set the tone for the new positioning of the region at the Agro-Tourism Workshop held in St. Kitts from 3-5 October. He urged the region to stop head-counting as a measure of success, and instead adopt new ways that truly reflect whether progress is being made. He highlighted that foreign exchange generation, employment, distribution of income and linkages within the country are more important.
Vanderpool-Wallace emphasized community tourism. “If you are not involving the local people in tourism, you are going to fail,” he warned. He advocated the need to bring the community in, with a new emphasis “first on the people that live in the area, next on the investors, and last on the tourists.”
Vanderpool-Wallace stressed that tourism needs to begin with the people who live in each country.
“If you always do what you always do, you will always get what you always got,” he said, highlighting that the time has come for change.
He emphasized that CTO and the Caribbean Hotel Association want to own the Caribbean brand, which he described as the “best known un-owned brand.” He urged the need to come forth with a one program and one united Caribbean. He mentioned that CTO would seek to make it their business that the best practices among members be known, regardless of whether they are being implemented by government or the private sector.
He urged for the Caribbean to go Caribbean. Vanderpool-Wallace said that apples and pears in gift fruit baskets need to replaced with more Caribbean fruits, with a note explaining the more exotic fruits. He stressed a new push for “fresh from the Caribbean” and the need to identify things that are fresh and produced in the Caribbean.
Caribbean Tourism Organization is preparing its 28th Caribbean Tourism Conference for St. Thomas from 21-26 October. See http://www.onecaribbean.org
Vanderpool-Wallace said he would be traveling to the Dominican Republic for a sustainable tourism conference in December.