Although the National Tourism Management Policy for the next five years will remain on much the same course as before, there is one overarching change – the new agenda for sustainable development.
This was the message given by Chief Officer with the Ministry of Tourism and Environment Gloria McField-Nixon at the annual tourism conference Friday at the Marriott Beach Resort.
This is what has come out of the initial consultations, according to Chris Evans of the Tourism Company, the UK company that was chosen in 2002 to oversee the plan, and which again won the bid early this year.
The NTMP is a policy designed to provide a framework and clear vision of the sustainable development of the tourism sector, Ms McField-Nixon said. The existing plan matures at the end of this year and the draft for the next five years (2008 to 2012) is in its final stages.
Minister of Tourism Charles Clifford, in this state of the industry address, spoke about the government’s commitment to being sustainable across the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental issues.
Referring to the NTMP as a milestone policy document, he said ‘Sustainable tourism will be the bedrock and cornerstone of the plan’.
Last March the public consultation process for this draft began, with questionnaire surveys for the public, interviews with key public and private sector agencies and a series of meetings held in the districts to gain the public’s feedback.
Key findings of the public consultation survey showed that environmental objectives were considered to be the most important policy objectives.
The large majority of people saw the need to control the number of cruise ships and the control of accommodation development in order to avoid over development.
The original nine policy objectives have been restructured to provide a new framework for a range of detailed action points for the next five years.
This sees the No. 1 policy objective now as: to sustain the quality of the environmental product.
For this first objective some priority areas include: develop a new approach to planning; prepare development guidelines for tourism zones; institute environmental impact assessments for major tourism projects; initiate protection for environmental areas; develop a Cayman design guide; prepare a regeneration plan for George Town; review the quality of the public realm.
The next policy objective is to manage visitors and their impacts, with priorities of managing cruise arrivals, air arrivals, and developing a marine tourism management plan.
Next is to provide a high quality sustainable Caymanian tourism product; with priority areas including upgrading accommodation, creating a leader in sustainable practices and to establish the Cayman Pride initiative;
Next is to manage the Sister Islands as destinations for nature-based tourism;
Another is to develop a highly skilled Caymanian tourism workforce;
Attract a more discerning and higher spending visitor;
Research and monitor tourism more effectively; and organise tourism in the Cayman Islands more effectively.
A year ago, at the previous tourism conference, Ms McField-Nixon had noted that 41 per cent of the key action items in the original plan were either completed or in progress, with 59 per cent still pending.
‘This year we are able to report that 75 per cent are either in progress or completed, and 25 per cent pending,’ she said.
‘So that demonstrates significant progress being made on the NTMP within the agencies responsible for those different subject areas.’
Within the current NTMP implementation some of the already complete action items include: the sandbar management plan; beach erosion action plan.
Items in progress include: improving facilities at the cruise port/airport and a review of entertainment trading hours; the PRIDE customer service programme; the support of local agriculture and the Development Plan review; marine conservation enforcement; focusing on niche markets and considering necessary product development issues; a survey of Caymanian attitudes to working in tourism; the NTMP itself; the development of an economic impact model; gather analyse and present relevant tourism data.
In the original plan the objectives, which have now been restructured under the new plan, are listed as follows:
Provide a high quality product for the visitor;
Present a distinctive Caymanian experience;
Adopt a sustainable approach to tourism development;
Protect and enhance the marine resource;
Attract a more discerning and higher spending visitor;
Develop a highly skilled Caymanian workforce;
Develop eco-tourism on the Sister Islands;
Organise tourism in the Cayman Islands more effectively;
Research and monitor tourism more effectively.
Ms McField-Nixon said that results in visitor arrival trends, accommodations inventory recovery and resilience to natural disasters such as Hurricane Ivan demonstrate that this is a solid plan.
The NTMP, she explained, is underpinned on the concept of consultation between the government, private sector and the community.
For the 2002 to 2007 NTMP, just after the policy was officially launched in April 2004, Hurricane Ivan came along and interrupted it. Following Hurricane Ivan, the implementation strategy was revised in recognition of the fact that volunteers on the various committees were preoccupied with their own recovery and that decision making and financial resources were vested in government agencies. Therefore committees are now in more of a monitoring and advisory status.
With this NTMP the implementation process will be a key area for continued discussion with the steering committee, she said.
Following a second round of consultation this month, the final draft document is to be completed and submitted to Government for approval with implementation to begin in January 2008.
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