CASTRIES, St Lucia – Senior tourism officials from across the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will meet in St. Lucia for two days next week for a workshop designed to develop the first Common Tourism Policy for the sub-region.
The March 23-24 workshop falls under a project financed by the Commonwealth Secretariat and comes on the heels of the recently ratified Treaty of Basseterre Establishing the OECS Economic Union. The Project financed by the Commonwealth Secretariat commenced in January and is expected to be completed in August.
“The St Lucia meeting will focus on the assessment of national tourism policies in OECS Member States, with a view to developing a common policy that guides and adds value to individual national policies…The consultancy firm, Yellow Railroad, based in the UK has been contracted to implement the project in conjunction with the OECS Secretariat,” said Programme Officer for Tourism at the OECS Economic Affairs Division Dr. Loraine Nicholas.
The OECS Secretariat said in a statement that heavy reliance on tourism for economic growth and development makes it imperative that the region adopts a strategic, sustainable, integrated and cohesive approach to tourism development, within the context of the Economic Union.
Harmonization of policies is a key ingredient in the successful establishment of an economic union, the Secretariat noted, and the revised OECS Treaty provides for policy coordination and joint action in several areas, including tourism, as it seeks to deepen the level of integration and functional cooperation in various sectors.
More specifically, the Revised Treaty of Basseterre urges OECS Member States to work towards progressive harmonization of tourism policies and, where necessary, the adoption of a common policy for tourism development.
Article 21 of the Protocol of Eastern Caribbean Economic Union requires that a common tourism policy be designed to foster balanced growth and development of the tourism sector in the OECS Economic Union Area.
The OECS Secretariat says, given the economic significance of tourism, the success of the OECS Economic Union will be enabled by the effective coordination of tourism policies in the region.
