Tourism professionals across the Caribbean have spoken again of the need for unity and confidence.
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s State of the Industry conference, organisation chairman Ricky Skerritt said Caribbean visitors are discriminating travellers who seek to experience islands beyond hotels and also expect the hotels to be of an international standard.
He said therefore it was a private and public issue with the need to raise standards across the board in order to get travellers to choose the Caribbean over other possible vacation destinations. Visitors would then tell people on their social medium of choice, he said.
It was imperative there was a total commitment to service across all industries and people required updated skills and relevant knowledge in order to perform in their jobs.
Moreover, said Mr. Skerritt, there was another factor that must be embraced and that was confidence. He gave the example of successful sports people who had confidence in their ability to win.
“All other factors being considered, confidence drives a winning team, separates men from boys and excellence from the ordinary,” he said.
Despite recent intimations that economic forecasts emanating from the United States would be more moderate than planned, showing a lack of investor and consumer confidence in the Caribbean’s main source market, the region must not lose its faith in itself.
“We must not sell ourselves short; the Caribbean is the best tourism region in the world,” he said, pointing to the attractions of clear waters, sandy beaches, year-round sun, friendliness, culture and history.
“We must have confidence in leveraging our god-given assets.”
Franz Gumbs, keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, said there was a need to work on the distance between social links that bind the Caribbean, and the administrative barriers between countries.
“It is a great challenge … the interest of each island is to see its people as wealthy as possible, but to look at the picture; this should not be done to the evident detriment of neighbours and friends,” he said.
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