Political stupidity can harm tourism

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Parent Category: Dec 2011

Category: Week ending Dec 31st, 2011

Published on Monday, 02 January 2012 18:21

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Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s Chairman, Richard Skerritt says “political stupidity” is an eminent danger to regional tourism.

Addressing scores of stakeholders gathered at the Grenada Trade Centre at a recent meeting, the St Kitts and Nevis Minister of Tourism warned the region not to allow local political partisan interests to undermine the region’s main income earner.

“We must therefore not allow the vital needs of tourism to be compromised by shortsighted political stupidity. Political stupidity is prevalent across our region”, he added

According to Skerritt, it is sometimes unbelievable that Caribbean leaders are yet to understand the importance of tourism to the economy and that if managed properly can alleviate poverty.

“The Caribbean needs to do things differently in order to remain competitive ... The future of tourism’s success will require a proactive private sector ... The tribalism has to end ... We must not allow the benefits of tourism to be compromised by political stupidity”, he told stakeholders.

“...You would be surprised at how many leaders in the region don’t recognise that tourism — if managed properly - alleviates poverty”, he remarked.

The CTO Chairman called for the tourism industry to be offered greater protection by regional leaders.

“Our tourism must be protected from the partisan tribalism that often divides us in these islands. We don’t have to like each other to work together in the national interest, we just need to like what we do and love our country”, he said.

“We don’t have to agree on everything in order to improve our product standards and island experience for our visitors and we don’t have to vote for the same political party in order to recognise the value of tourism expenditure in our economy”, he added.

Skerritt noted that given the challenges of the current world economy, there is an urgent need for all sectors in each island to work closer together.

He stressed the need for local politicians to put aside their own partisan interests to ensure that the region’s tourism sector survives these times. The St. Kitts Nevis Tourism Minister indicated that the common national interest of preserving the crucial tourism sector should supercede all other considerations. He warned against cutting back spending on market competitiveness because of the crisis.

Skerritt said that what the tourism industry in the region needs now in a time of crisis are wise investments.

“And while we have to be prudent in our own expenditure we must not allow overly obsessed cost cutters in our businesses and government to ignore the need for people development or in market competitiveness,” he told the meeting.

The Kittian government minister reminded stakeholders that the Caribbean is dependent on tourism and congratulated the Minister of Tourism in Grenada and the Grenada Board of Tourism (GBT) for putting on the timely and important conference and pledged that the CTO will continue to support Grenada closely in its efforts at improvement of the tourism stock.

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