The newly elected Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) President, Sanovnik Destang, has underscored the need for better links between tourism and other economic sectors.
Destang, Executive Director of Bay Gardens Resorts in Saint Lucia, listed tourism linkages among three areas he has a passion for and on which the CHTA would continue to focus.
He said the other two are people, whom he described as tourism’s greatest asset, and technology, which Caribbean tourism businesses can use to propel themselves.
Regarding tourism linkages, Destang declared it was more than just a buzzword in the Region.
“it is a matter of our very survival in the Caribbean and if Caribbean entrepreneurs and people on the whole are not able to benefit from tourism, we are not going to sustain it going forward,” the Saint Lucia hotelier said in a video on the CHTA Facebook page.
He explained that he was not unnecessarily trying to add more CHTA committees and task forces.
Nevertheless, Destang felt it was time to have a CHTA linkages task force to focus on better linkages between hospitality and tourism and other sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment.
He recalled a session on festival tourism last year that proved insightful and showed the importance of tourism’s ‘trickle down’ effect and festival and arts tourism.
According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the Caribbean Region relies most on global travel and tourism.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) reported that Regional tourism grew in 2023 with an estimated 14.3% increase in international stay-over arrivals to the region.
Plantations by the sea, and he’s just a plantation owner
Trickle-down effect Ha! While Bay Gardens may be locally-owned the majority of resorts in SL are not. Apart from (poorly paid) locally employed staff, the money does not stay on this island! And in-house services prevent a lot of local businesses, and especially small communities, gaining anything at all from Tourism…
Some of you Lucians have no education but yet still you want jobs which pay thousand per month ..make that make sense.
@Anonymous. Either your a self hating black person or just another racist slowly populating this island. Do you really think there are fair wages in St. Lucia considering we have such a high cost of living? Don’t let your prejudice make you less intelligent.
@sla for your information I have several degrees ..if you read the post you would understand that I said SOME and whether you believe it or not there are SOME uneducated/illiterate individuals in St. Lucia so I am not certain how race got into the equation.
If you want to think that every individual in St. Lucia is academically qualified to make thousands per month continue with your denial.
@Anonymous .. Thousands implies at the very least a couple (2) thousand. I never insulted your educational background but your biases, so I don’t know why this factors in here? Too many St. Lucians like to default to the degrees as a line of defence.
Do you really think a liveable wage in St. Lucia is 2000XCD? What with the cost of rent, food, insurance, transportation, etc. Flouting academic achievement as a prerequisite for having a basic decent human life is steeped in colonial thought. Break your back to earn a living, rather than being human should give you the inherent right to having a decent life.
How much is too much for someone who isn’t educated? People like you perpetuate the vicious cycle of neglect that keeps this country from elevating itself because you lot rather gate-keep than elevate all lives in this country. Do you really think we will have a national security if we put the proverbial cart before the horse? Or should we focus on making as many of our St. Lucians feel that they are worthy of a good life and hence fairly compensated for those they make rich, education or not?
Education does not always equate to intelligence, commonsense or just plain knowledge – look at some of the politicians around the place! Economically Tourism does NOT benefit ALL but that is what is sold to the St Lucian people as a ‘fact’, while it is not the reality. Do your homework @anonymous and analyse the available data on locally owned versus foreign owned resorts, those that outsource services and those that keep them inhouse with overall profits sent offshore. Perhaps you will be surprised… Of course Tourism contributes to the economy, but it is dangerous to put all of our eggs into one basket – anyone remember COVID… It’s an easy option, and a lazy one for the Government to ply this line, and encourage people to believe it’s the best thing for the economy. So many more things could be done to ensure that our island has sustainable and more beneficial businesses and practices…