Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2020

2 1 0 COVER STORY Neil Walters explains how the Caribbean Tourism Organization is working to promote recovery T he Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is providing vital support for its members as they embark on the long journey to recovery. It has focused crisis support on three primary areas. “We have provided a conduit for reliable information sharing and for communication on Covid-19, we have coordinated the tourism industry’s readiness and response efforts and we are building the knowledge base and research for strategic planning and to guide recovery,” says acting secretary general Neil Walters. “Specifically, the CTO provides relevant and reliable information on managing Covid-19 to member governments through information sessions and the CTO website,” says Walters. “The CTO is a conduit for sharing information from various regional partners including the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Caribbean Development Bank, and its private sector travel and tourism partners, including for marketing and trade.” The CTO’s website serves as a central information sharing platform providing updated information from member countries and links to relevant websites, including CARPHA, the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization. It has built an essential repository of knowledge and best practice. “We gather and analyse information updates on country/tourism sector impact and response measures. The CTO also maintains the link between the member states and the regional and international media,” says Walters. The CTO kicked into action at the onset of the pandemic. “We promptly drafted a regional crisis communications strategy for government, non-government and private sector stakeholders, which includes engagement of the regional tourism Public Relations Council, CARPHA, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre,” says Walters. The four organisations established a Covid-19 Caribbean Tourism Task Force. Walters says: “The task force has completed protocols for reopening and is currently organising training sessions with stakeholders through CARPHA.” “We have also been galvanising support for research to understand the impact of the crisis and to guide the recovery process,” he says. The CTO has engaged the support of regional and global partners “to execute initiatives for the continuous assessment of the evolving impact of the crisis on the tourism sector,” including the George Washington University International Institute of Tourism Studies and Euromonitor International. Additionally, “the organisation has allocated resources to scoping research focused on guiding the recovery process,” says Walters. The organisation’s tactical approach is proving effective. “We have been fuelling Caribbean dreaming “We have been galvanising support for research to understand the impact of the crisis and to guide the recovery process” Photo: Royal Caribbean