Montserrat’s Tourism Week to coincide with World Tourism Day

Montserrat will celebrate Tourism Week 2023 from the 24th of September to the 30th.

The week of events coincides with World Tourism Day on the 27th, which is being held under the theme, “Tourism and Green Investments”. World Tourism day will be marked with a radio address from Premier and Minister of Tourism, Joseph Farrell, as well as a Career Open Day. 

Other events taking place throughout the week include an opening church service, radio addresses, tours, a vendors fair, and hikes. The full list of events can be found on Montserrat Tourism Division’s Facebook page.

Meantime, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (ECCB) plans to make changes to its OECS Common Tourism Policy.

These changes come as a result of high market demand and sustainable travel heightening in the post COVID-19 environment.

The new, updated OECS Common Tourism Policy will support competitiveness, balanced growth and sustainability, and will introduce new areas of opportunities specifically within the blue economy.

The tourism policy update is funded by the World Bank’s US 9 million dollar “Unleashing the Blue Economy of the Caribbean'' (UBEC) initiative with the OECS.

The OECS Commission, through the UBEC project,  has acquired consultancy services that will use consultation, policy analysis, tourism development expertise, institutional strengthening, research in climate resilience and enterprise development in the blue economy to support the update of the OECS Common Tourism Policy.

The OECS Common Tourism Policy is one of several initiatives being conducted under the UBEC project to support regional tourism. Other activities scheduled to be implemented in 2024 include the development of standards for beaches, marinas and boat operators as well as the implementation of joint tourism marketing around blue tourism.

OECS Director General, Dr. Didacus Jules commented on the policy update stating that with high dependencies on tourism for economic growth, the OECS need to ensure that they have a tourism policy in place which emphasizes balanced growth and development, greater community participation and increased benefits to local communities.

The OECS Commission had its first stakeholder engagement with senior tourism officials on August 30, 2023.