Caribbean sustainable tourism efforts need to step up

Accord­ing to a Tele­SUR report, ACS Sec­ret­ary-Gen­er­al Dr June Soomer believes that increased sup­port of tour­ism through spon­sor­ship pro­grams can dir­ectly involve entre­pren­eurs, artis­ans, and innov­at­ors in expand­ing exist­ing tour­ist products and in cre­at­ing new ones.

The under­tak­ings took place at the end of ACS’ 28th Meet­ing of the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Spe­cial Com­mit­tee, which took place over two days on the island of Mar­gar­ita, Venezuela. Accord­ing to the ACS web­site the July 10 – 11 meet­ings were held “to dis­cuss the imple­ment­a­tion of ini­ti­at­ives on Com­munity-Based Tour­ism and strength­en­ing the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Zone of the Great­er Carib­bean (STZC)”.

Accord­ing to Tele­SUR, the event host Venezuela com­mit­ted to region­al cooper­a­tion in sus­tain­able tourism.

Venezuela’s Vice Min­is­ter for the Carib­bean with­in the For­eign Min­istry, Raul Licausi, reportedly said the South Amer­ic­an nation would “pro­mote and devel­op sus­tain­able and respons­ible tour­ism in the Carib­bean Sea as a com­munity and social activ­ity, in accord­ance with the prin­ciples of social inclu­sion, social and eco­nom­ic justice, guar­an­tee­ing the right to recre­ation by the pop­u­la­tion”. This would include “the most vul­ner­able sec­tors, with respect for the envir­on­ment, bio­lo­gic­al diversity, val­ues of pop­u­lar cul­tures, and Carib­bean cul­tur­al heritage”.

“We will spon­sor com­munity-based tour­ism through socio-pro­duct­ive organ­isa­tions, so that the inhab­it­ants of the com­munit­ies them­selves man­age their own devel­op­ment, includ­ing the man­age­ment of loc­al tour­ist des­tin­a­tions,” he said. “We will also pro­mote the endo­gen­ous plan­ning and sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of its sur­round­ings, in order to improve the qual­ity of life, both indi­vidu­al and collective.”

In close coordin­a­tion with the Spe­cial Com­mit­tee for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism, Venezuela will devel­op sus­tain­able tour­ism plans that incorporate:

• Cri­ter­ia for the con­ser­va­tion of pro­tec­ted nat­ur­al areas;
• Mod­els for par­ti­cip­a­tion of loc­al com­munit­ies in the man­age­ment and oper­a­tion of sus­tain­able tour­ism activities;
• Levels of respons­ib­il­ity of nat­ur­al and leg­al per­sons, pub­lic and private, with and without profit; and
• Scope for the par­ti­cip­a­tion of organ­ised com­munit­ies in decision-mak­ing bod­ies and oth­er forms of col­lect­ive participation.

The next meet­ing on sus­tain­able tour­ism will be held next July on Trin­id­ad and Tobago.

ACS’ Sus­tain­able Tour­ism team: (L‑R) Bevon Bern­ard-Henry (Sec­ret­ary), Julio Orozco Per­éz (Dir­ect­or), Tan­ya Amaya Castro (Advisor), and Vic­tor­ia Ram­deen (Research Assist­ant). Source: ACS

What is the Association of Caribbean States?

The Asso­ci­ation of Carib­bean States (ACS) is a uni­on of nations centered on the Carib­bean Basin. It was formed with the aim of pro­mot­ing con­sulta­tion, cooper­a­tion, and con­cer­ted action among all the coun­tries of the Carib­bean. The primary pur­pose of the ACS is to devel­op great­er trade between the nations, enhance trans­port­a­tion, devel­op sus­tain­able tour­ism, and facil­it­ate great­er and more effect­ive responses to loc­al nat­ur­al dis­asters. (Wiki­pe­dia)

ACS’ mem­ber states are Anti­gua and Bar­buda, The Bahamas, Bar­ba­dos, Bel­ize, Colom­bia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Domin­ica, Domin­ic­an Repub­lic, El Sal­vador, Gren­ada, Guatem­ala, Guyana, Haiti, Hon­dur­as, Mex­ico, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vin­cent and the Gren­ad­ines, Sur­i­n­ame, Trin­id­ad and Tobago and Venezuela. Its Asso­ci­ate Mem­bers are Aruba, Cur­a­cao, (France on behalf of French Guiana, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Mar­tin), Guade­loupe, Mar­ti­nique, Sint Maarten, (The Neth­er­lands on behalf of Bon­aire, Saba, and Sint Eusta­ti­us), Turks and Caicos.

What is the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Greater Caribbean?

The ACS defines the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Zone of the Great­er Carib­bean (STZC) as “a geo­graph­ic­ally determ­ined cul­tur­al, socio-eco­nom­ic and bio­lo­gic­ally rich and diverse unit, in which tour­ism devel­op­ment will depend on sus­tain­ab­il­ity and the prin­ciples of integ­ra­tion, co-oper­a­tion and con­sensus, aimed at facil­it­at­ing the integ­rated devel­op­ment of the Great­er Caribbean”.

The ACS claims that, through the STZC Con­ven­tion, which offi­cially entered into force in Novem­ber 2013, the Great­er Carib­bean Region is “the First Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Zone in the World”.

Source: This post is based on a sum­mary of a Tele­SUR report with addi­tion­al back­ground and links added.

Fea­tured image: Sun­set on Man­zanillo beach, Mar­gar­ita island, Venezuela. By Hec­tor Darío, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wiki­me­dia