– Rodrigues tells SOTIC      

-by Nakasia Logan

Regional Connectivity has been identified as key to the future growth of Caribbean Tourism.

Guyana’s Tourism Minister Susan Rodrigues says the region must get connectivity right to advance sustainability, inclusivity and community-based tourism.

At the ministerial session on “Competing for Tomorrow” Minister Rodrigues said better connectivity would allow tourism benefits to reach communities and be reinvested in local economies.

This was her response to the question as to what the region must get right over the next ten years to grow its tourism industry.

“We have to get connectivity right as a region for us to really grow and achieve our objectives ….sustainability, inclusivity, community-based tourism, and ensuring that our communities benefit from the proceeds of tourism and that that money is reinjected in to the local economies for their own development, whether it be their economic development or cultural preservation, I think connectivity is what is really going to be transformative for the Caribbean as a whole.”

Other tourism ministers who were apart of the panel echoed similar sentiments with Anguilla’s, Cardigan Connor, stating that the same applies to the Island when it comes to connectivity.

Anguilla,s Tourism minister, Hon. Cardigan Connor, said “Although we guard ourselves as the beautiful Island, the question is how do you get there and over the last year we have had a very good year and that is down to Barbuda Air coming on board.”

Minister of Tourism for the British Virgin Islands, Hon. Luce Hodge-Smith, said, “For us in the BVI we have two industries unlike some other countries who have manufacturing, we don’t, our two industries are financial services and tourism, so we depend heavily on these two industries to have the quality of life that we have so having the people involved having the connectivity involved is very important to us.”

SOTIC 26 is being held under the theme “Tourism Futures: Smart Sustainable and Inclusive.

The conference began on Monday October 5 and concludes on Friday October 9.