Above: Dominica (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Dominica intends to attract at least 90,000 stayover visitors to the island by 2015, according to Colin Piper, CEO of the Discover Dominica Authority.

That figure would represent 7 percent annual growth. Last year, Dominica brought in 78,965 stayover arrivals, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism.

“The consultants have proposed that in order for Dominica to remain sustainable in the tourism industry, we really need to get to a figure of 90,000 stay over visitors by 2015,” Piper said following a recent tourism summit on the island. “So there was a rallying cry at that tourism summit for all involved to understand that goal, and I suppose this would be the first opportunity to say this to Dominicans at large, that collectively, not the DDA, not the Ministry of Tourism, not the DHTA, not DWA but collectively ‘Destination  Dominica’ needs to be moving in one direction and that direction is for 90,000 stay over visitors by 2015.”

Piper said that will mean the need for an “organized and targeted approach,” joining the public and private sectors.

“It’s a tough target but we all have to look inward to determine what it is that we can all do differently to assist the nation in doing so,” he said. “Every individual needs to look at how they can play their part, every property and every service provider as well as the public sector.”