Above: Port-Salut (Photo: MH Haiti)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Developing Haiti’s nascent tourism sector will be a slow, gradual climb, but the country took a step forward this week with the launch of a new programme to train tour guides in the country.

The initiative, which was launched by the Hotel School in Haiti, will provide training, not just for guides, but travel agents, tour operators, event coordinators and real estate agents.

The programme will offer two options: a nine-mont course and a comprehensive, 18-month programme that will train for careers as tour guides.

It was designed by Aude Guiraud, who has taught tourism management at the Institute of Tourism and Hotels of Quebec (ITHQ) and LaSalle College in Montreal.

The hotel school, which reopened last year, is about to begin implementing a new training curriculum adopted last year by the Ministry of Tourism’s training department, in partnership with ITHQ, which is based in Quebec.