Caribbean urgently needs integrated tourism development programme

Few would any longer argue against the centrality of tourism to the Caribbean economy. Thankfully, the days when officials in the region and beyond would suggest that tourism was too fickle a force to support diversification and spur development have long gone; albeit mainly through circumstance rather than conviction. It is now accepted that without the industry, much of the region would be in serious economic difficulty.

Despite this, tourism’s cross-cutting dynamics, and the often simple kinds of support it needs to remain competitive, the sector is still failing to attract the attention of policy makers and multilateral funding institutions.

This is hard to understand when over the past twenty years the structure of the Caribbean economy has been transformed from one that