Tourism Ambassadors in the making

Tourism Ambassadors in the making

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Details: Parent Category: Dec 2011; Category: Week ending Dec 10th, 2011; Published on Monday, 19 December 2011 16:36; Hits: 339

Internationally renowned Grenadians Johnson Beharry, Kirani James, Rondell Bartholomew and Jason Roberts could be used as ambassadors to lure investors to the island. This was one of the disclosures made by Tourism Minister, Peter David during the 2011 Tourism Conference and unveiling of a new strategic plan last week Tuesday.

“More efficient and targeted marketing of Grenada is a priority going forward. In this regard the Ministry and the GBT and the soon-to-be-established Tourism Authority - will consider several options. These include the use of prominent Grenadians such as Kirani James, Rondell Bartholomew, Jason Roberts and Johnson Beharry as spokespersons in effectively marketing Grenada to the world.”

James, Bartholomew and Roberts are sportsmen while BeHarry is one of the most decorated soldiers in the British army.

According to Minister David, the Ambassadors Programme “is an inexpensive way of marketing this island”.

“One person, for instance, will be appointed as Ambassador for International Marketing & Inward Investment. On a whole, the role of these Tourism Ambassadors would be to use their vast network and influence to facilitate investment into Grenada and also find opportunities for Grenadian goods and services on the international market”, he told the conference.

The programme is one of several suggestions put forward to entice investors to the country.

During consultations to formulate the tourism strategic plan that was developed after months of consultations involving Ministry and officials from the Grenada Board of Tourism (GBT) officials, taxi drivers, tour operators and other tourism interest groups, suggestions were made on giving special consideration for citizenship to persons who are investing in the country,

Minister David said that they have listened with interest to the proposal for an Investment Incentive Package for qualified applicants.

He explained that one component of the proposed package recommends that the government set up a 30-day guarantee on Alien Landholding Licences which will guarantee an applicant for a licence a response within 30 days.

“That answer either should be licence granted, licence denied or we have queries on your application and we need you to answer the following questions,’’ he said.

The minister pointed out that another suggestions made was for giving special consideration for citizenship to persons who are actually investing in the country, adding that, ‘this investment by bona fide investors must be sizeable”.

“It must come with certain conditions based on size of investment, numbers of Grenadians employed by the investor and the overall impact on the economy of the investment”, he said

The tourism minister stressed that the Strategic Plan also recognises the need to attract capital into Grenada for the purpose of infrastructure development particularly for the expansion of hotel room stock, which presently is estimated at around 1500 rooms.

He re-emphasized the importance of tourism to Grenada’s economy and its impact on other sectors of the society.

Minister David said statistics on tourism’s impact usually focuses on the direct effect on industry players such as hotels and restaurants but what is often not measured is tourism’s “indirect economic contribution’’ to farmers, the electricity company, telephone companies, banks, supermarkets, the National Water and Sewerage Authority, taxi tour operators, and market and spice vendors.

In recent years, tourism has emerged as the major foreign exchange earner for the island in light of notable decreases in agricultural exports.