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Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Friday, May 23, 2003 - Parliamentary Representative for Dennery South
Honourable Damian Greaves, has attempted to dispel what he believes to be a
common misconception. The Minister was referring to the view held by some, that
the tourism industry is a threat to the agricultural sector, particularly to the
survival of the banana industry. This he believes minimizes people’s
appreciation of the important linkages between the sectors, and hampers mutual
co-operation towards developing the Agro-tourism sector.
“For a lot of our farmers in this country tourism is a bad word, because the
impression I am getting is that every time they hear tourism it means, or they
refer to it as something which is coming to compete with them and coming to take
over from them. But that is not what it is all about – we’re talking about the
linkages. And I believe we have failed in not trying to foster the linkages and
we have failed in perhaps not trying to educate our people about the importance
of those linkages and perhaps that is something that we need to do in the not
too distant future.”
Minister Greaves was at the time speaking to young persons who were about to
embark on a heritage tourism development project in the Dennery Valley known as
Youth PATH. He also mooted the idea of a biennial Banana Festival in the valley
as an example of an agro- tourism linkage from which there are dividends to be
reaped.
“I challenge the St. Lucia Heritage Tourism, to link up with the Cultural
Development Foundation and the Ministry of Agriculture to begin that Banana
Festival in the valley that everyone can gain from. Now you are going to have
farmers understand the importance of the link between agriculture and tourism in
so far as the banana culture is concerned.”
The Minister says that a festival of this nature will promote the versatility of
the banana and its by products, as well as integrate culture and heritage with
tourism.
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