Tourism Council holds inaugural meeting at NIC on December 4

Contact: Titus Preville

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 – In its ongoing efforts to implement the Tourism Strategy and Action Plan the Ministry of Tourism has instituted the Saint Lucia Tourism Industry Council which is to convene its inaugural meeting at the NIC Conference Room on Friday and Saturday, December 04 & 05, 2009 from 8.30 am. The theme for the meeting is ”Consolidating our Gains and Strategizing for the Future”.

Purpose:

The Government of Saint Lucia proposes the establishment of a Tourism Industry Council charged with the responsibility of recommending workable private sector and public sector actions to improve the islands competitiveness in tourism.

Composition:

It is proposed that Tourism Industry Council is comprised of representatives from the following entities:

Public Sector	Entities	Private Sector	Local Gov’t/Development Foundations
Ministry of Physical Development	Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority	SLHTA Council	Southern Tourism Development Foundation
Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security	Water and Sewerage Authority	National Taxi Assoc	Dennery Development Foundation
Ministry for Social Transformation, Human Services, Family Affairs, Youth and Sports.	St Lucia National Trust	National Vendors Assoc	Soufriere Regional Development Foundation
Ministry for Health & Labor Relations.		Entertainment Industry Rep	Laborie Development Foundation
Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.		LUCELEC	Gros Islet Town Council
Ministry for Education and Culture.		Cable & Wireless	Castries City Council
Ministry for Housing, Urban Renewal and Local Government.			Anse La Raye Village Council
Ministry for Communications, Works, Transport and Public Utilities.			Canaries Village Council
Ministry for Trade, Industry and Commerce			Choiseul Village Council
Ministry for Economic Affairs and Economic Planning, National Development and the Public Service.			Micoud Village Council
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism			Babonneau Development Committee

Goals

The goal of this entity is to make the tourism industry more competitive in order to drive the ambition of increasing the tourism revenues by 20 % to XCD$1.2 billion by 2010. The Council is tasked with producing tangible industry initiatives and making recommendations to the Minister for both the private and public sectors initiatives.

Objectives

The Council will follow a strategic approach in order to develop meaningful recommendations. The following are the Council’s objectives:

1. To provide strategic leadership, establish guiding principles and policies and recommend direction for the functions of research, product development and marketing for the Island’s tourism sector.

2. Develop position on the following strategic and critical areas:

2. To foster better public understanding on the part of individuals, businesses, and government departments of the importance of the tourism industry to the economy;

3. to ensure that the communities are prepared to host visitors by addressing issues including but not limited to customer service, access, hospitality training, and citizen awareness of Saint Lucia's tourism product; and to be the catalyst among appropriate entities to prioritize, assess, develop, and package tourist attractions that will continue make Saint Lucia a viable destination.

4. The Council will provide advice to the Minister who will enact the principles and policies and respond to the recommendations made by the Council and committees.

After the initial meeting the full council will meet once a year at the Tourism Summit, to ratify recommendations of working committees, which will be formed from the Council, to develop policy recommendations and positions on various issues. These working committees will meet periodically and rely on secretariat services of the Ministry.