Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 19, 2016 (SKNIS): The Ministry of Tourism continues to achieve its goals in adopting a systematic, systemic coordinated approach to tourism education, with the hosting of a two-day tourism education workshop for school children at the National Emergency Management Agency Conference Room on Tuesday, January 19.
Regional Human Resource Development Consultant for the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Mrs. Banfield Bovell, gave a brief overview of the workshop.
“Over the next two days, we are going to spend some time looking at the issues of tourism and how we present that information to our young people, mainly in the primary schools but in schools in general,” she said. “The messages are all the same, the deliveries are going to vary and so during the two days we are going to look at how we deliver that information in a primary and secondary school setting, or just in a normal community setting where there is tourism awareness.”
Mrs. Banfield described tourism as a vital sector.
“Tourism is a good message to share because we all play a part in tourism,” she said. “Over the next couple of days, we are going to look at those tourism concepts that we want people to understand.”
Assistant Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Diannille Taylor-Williams, said that tourism is of significant importance and that the workshop marks the beginning of an exciting journey.
“Today, we are seeing the unfolding of a dream which so many of us at the ministry has longed to see being realized,” she said. “We believe that through a programme like this, the minds of our young people will be molded to meet the demands of the growing tourism industry and at the same time broadening their horizons without having to leave their home country.”
Ms. Taylor-Williams noted that tourism has been acknowledged as the largest global industry employing one in every 11 persons in the world and added that this act is more obvious in St. Kitts and Nevis and the Caribbean.
The workshop which is in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and supported by the Caribbean Tourism Organization comes to an end on Wednesday, January 20.