Capacity Building in the Tourism Sector
The region markets itself as a safe destination for tourist. It is therefore critical to the survival of the tourism industry to maintain this image of the Caribbean as a safe haven. However, threatening to tarnish the image and consequently threaten the industry are increasing levels of crime in a number of countries, including crime against tourists.
In reality crime and harassment against tourists are components of the broader issue of visitor safety and security. Among the other pertinent security issues are the safety of borders and ports; adequacy of the infrastructure; food safety; integrity of health and health care delivery systems; disaster preparedness and effectiveness of crisis response mechanisms, and mitigation systems; environmental integrity. Of importance also is the region’s capacity to combat terrorism, and manage/mitigate crime and harassment.
Under this programmatic area, the ACS aims to fulfill its mandate to establish a regional cooperation mechanism on tourist safety and security through the co-ordination of inter-agencies collaboration for drafting specific plans of action at the regional, national and institutional level. The main objective is to maintain the image of the Caribbean as a safe haven and highly rated location for tourism and investment.
Capacity Building in the Tourism Sector was added to the Work Plan Structure within the Directorate of Sustainable Tourism at the VII ACS Meeting of the Heads of State and/or Government at Havana Cuba on June 4th, 2016. The ACS will complete this Plan of Action within a three-year period: 2016-2018and promote education in sustainable tourism addressing the human resources in the different areas of the sector in order to increase the competitiveness of destinations in the region. The four main actions to be undertaken in this area are:
- Promoting the implementation of a Regional Framework for Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the Region.
- Continuing with the Programme for the Promotion of Languages and Cultures of the Greater Caribbean.
- Drawing up the Regional Tourist Safety Strategy in conjunction with the work group to deal with potential security threats at tourist destinations.
- Developing capacity building in matters of tourism safety, continuing with the exchange of experiences and best practices.
