Caribbean tourism efforts continue in Europe
Saturday, April 3, 2004
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Following up on the
successful Caribbean tourism policy workshop hosted last November by the
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), a delegation of the Caribbean
Hotel Association (CHA) has met with Member of Parliament, George Foulkes, and
John Marshall, Head of the Caribbean Unit of the FCO, in London, to explore in
more detail the areas where the British Government may collaborate with the
Caribbean tourism industry.
"The FCO policy workshop set the stage for
collaboration by opening the lines of communication and conveying the message
of the importance of the tourism industry to the financial and social
well-being of Caribbean countries," said CHA President Simón B. Suárez.
"At that time, we committed to follow up
with specific actions," he said, adding that the follow up meeting served to
narrow the scope of the original proposals to focus on those with the most
potential, as they relate to European policy towards the Caribbean.
The meeting in London was followed by a corresponding reunion in Brussels with
Richard Howitt, Member of the European Parliament, to widen the efforts to
raise awareness and secure the financial support of the European Union for the
Caribbean tourism industry.
The visit concluded with a briefing by the
CHA delegation to the Caribbean Ambassadors in Brussels and to the President
of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Compton Bourne. George R. E. Bullen,
Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States in Belgium, hosted this meeting.
CHA will now expedite an evaluation of the development and research areas for
which they seek support from a poverty reduction/sustainable development
perspective. Among them, the development of a
Tourism Investment Fund has already been identified as a priority. "Given the
major challenges facing Caribbean hoteliers in attracting affordable finance,
we feel that the first proposal is the most urgent and potentially
significant," said Simón Suárez.
Suárez added that the Fund is the first step
to get adequate capital mobilized within the Caribbean for financing, with a
view to making projects attractive to international financial institutions. He
stressed that the investment fund would target indigenous, small hotels, which
are under a heavy debt burden. Another area
that has shown preliminary promise is the establishment of a "Friends of
Tourism" group at the World Trade Organization (WTO), for coordinating
positions in the GATS services negotiations on tourism, given the proposal's
direct link to poverty alleviation in the Caribbean.
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