Above: Haiti Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin signs the agreement (Photo: MT Haiti)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

It’s one of Caribbean tourism’s biggest challenges — promoting the importance of the industry internally.

As Haiti looks to develop its own nascent tourism sector, highlighting what it sees as the value of tourism to Haiti’s development will remain a major challenge.

That’s the focus of an agreement Haiti’s Tourism Ministry signed with the Organization of American States on Wednesday.

The Haiti-OAS partnership intends to “raise awareness of the potential for the development of tourism as a vehicle for improving socioeconomic life in Haiti,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Tourism.

The campaign will also look to highlight “internal tourism,” or tourism by locals in Haiti.

The programme, which will be funded with about $220,000, will target the areas of Port-au-Prince, Milot, Saut d’eau, Port Salult and Jacmel.

It will include the recruitment and training of “tourism awareness” coordinators, the creation of promotional materials on tourism, outreach to communities living around tourism sites and the organization of guided tours for local school children around the chosen sites, among other initiatives.

The campaign will begin in September, lasting through August 2014.

The World Tourism Organization will be providing technical support.