Sustainable tourism on the agenda

By Dana Niland
CJ Contributor

The Directorate of Sustainable Tourism of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) this week for the 26th Meeting of the Special Committee on Sustainable Tourism.

In his inaugural address, Secretary General of the ACS Alfonso Munera stressed the importance of sustainable tourism because of its contributions to social and economic development which generate large sources of employment in the Greater Caribbean region.

One of the first topics of discussion was the results of the Regional Cooperation Mechanism of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Greater Caribbean Project meeting, which focused on the implementation of communication materials and tools as Regional Sustainable Tourism Indicators.

Another discussion focused on the results of the Study on Training for Careers in Sustainable Tourism, which assessed the status and needs of vocational and technical training in the region’s tourism sector.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago noted these meetings regarding sustainable tourism were apt, as “the Caribbean region out-performed the rest of the world, recording a growth rate of 4.7 percent, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.”

The two-day meeting brought fifty delegates to Trinidad and Tobago, including those from member, associate member, and observer countries to the ACS.