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News from the Caribbean as of
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New tourism standards for Dominica
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
by Malaika Laurent
Caribbean Net News Dominica Correspondent
Email: malaika@caribbeannetnews.com
ROSEAU, Dominica: Stakeholders in the tourism industry in Dominica now need certification and licensing from the newly implemented Quality Assurance Unit at the National Development Corporation with the sole objective of raising standards in the tourism sector.
In December 2005, government amended the Tourism Act establishing a Quality Assurance Unit which places mandatory standards to govern different areas within the industry.
Assessment of properties including hotels, taxi operations, car rental agencies, diving operations, restaurants and others, have already began.
“We have some work to do with most of our properties, especially when it comes to having a disaster preparedness plan in place and also dealing with issues of safety in terms of having a fire certificate and having a health certificate for some of them,” said Director of Tourism, Sharon Pascal.
Pascal indicated that the response received thus far has been encouraging.
“The feedback has been very positive. We hope to complete our sensitisation visits in May so that we could encourage everyone to formally apply for a license.
“There’s a licensing committee that has been approved by Cabinet and established through the Tourism Act and so this will be in place so they will start off assessing the applications for licensing for submission to the Minister for approval,” she said.
Tourism Minister Yvor Nassief said that a recent survey revealed that only 30 percent or 300 hotel rooms in Dominica meet international standards, hence the need to improve the other facilities to spur the tourism industry.
“This is where the work of the Quality Assurance Unit comes in to play. Because to the extent that we can get the other 700 rooms up to mark, refurbished and certified as being approved, we have 700 more rooms coming into the market place, so that is one aspect of getting our room inventory up,” he said.
He said that details regarding possible hotel investments will be made public by the end of the summer.
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