stluciatimes, caribbean, caribbeannews, stlucia, saintlucia, stlucianews, saintlucianews, stluciatimesnews, saintluciatimes, stlucianewsonline, saintlucianewsonline, st lucia news online, stlucia news online, loop news, loopnewsbarbados

New CHTA President Urges Better Tourism Linkages

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.

 

Any third-party or user posts, comments, replies, and third-party entries published on the St. Lucia Times website (https://stluciatimes.com) in no way convey the thoughts, sentiments or intents of St. Lucia Times, the author of any said article or post, the website, or the business. St. Lucia Times is not responsible or liable for, and does not endorse, any comments or replies posted by users and third parties, and especially the content therein and whether it is accurate. St. Lucia Times reserves the right to remove, screen, edit, or reinstate content posted by third parties on this website or any other online platform owned by St. Lucia Times (this includes the said user posts, comments, replies, and third-party entries) at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you, or any user. For example, we may remove a comment or reply if we believe it violates any part of the St. Lucia Criminal Code, particularly section 313 which pertains to the offence of Libel. Except as required by law, we have no obligation to retain or provide you with copies of any content you as a user may post, or any other post or reply made by any third-party on this website or any other online platform owned by St. Lucia Times. All third-parties and users agree that this is a public forum, and we do not guarantee any confidentiality with respect to any content you as a user may post, or any other post or reply made by any third-party on this website. Any posts made and information disclosed by you is at your own risk.

7 COMMENTS

  1. 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…

  2. Some of you Lucians have no education but yet still you want jobs which pay thousand per month ..make that make sense.

  3. @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.

  4. @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.

  5. @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?

  6. 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…

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

TRENDING

Subscribe to our St. Lucia Times Newsletter

Get our headlines emailed to you every day.

Share via
Send this to a friend