by Brian Major
Last updated: 11:45 AM ET, Mon June 8, 2026
Endorsing a new model of tourism that creates and retains
greater value within the Caribbean, Dr. Terrance Drew, prime minister of St.
Kitts and Nevis and chairman of CARICOM, is supporting the Caribbean Tourism
Organization’s (CTO) Tourism Supply Side Initiative, describing it as a
critical step toward ensuring that tourism benefits the region’s people and
economies.
Drew delivered the remarks during the launch of the new
committee last week at Caribbean Week in New York. Speaking in his capacity as
CARICOM chairman, Dr. Drew said the future of Caribbean tourism must be
centered on creating greater value for the region by strengthening connections
between tourism and the wider economy. He emphasized that the sector should
support local entrepreneurs, rural communities, small businesses, women and
youth while fostering innovation, regional integration and sustainable
development.
“Tourism must not only create wealth in the Caribbean; it
must help keep that wealth in the Caribbean,” he said.
The new committee represents a strategic shift from a
traditional demand-driven focus on visitor arrivals to a comprehensive
supply-side approach centered on workforce development, local supplier
integration, logistics, infrastructure, digital transformation and
public-private partnerships.
Joining Dr. Drew were Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s minister of
tourism and chair of the new Tourism Supply Side Committee; Ian
Gooding-Edghill, CTO chairman and Barbados’ minister of tourism and
international transport for Barbados; Dona Regis-Prosper, CTO secretary-general
and CEO; and Sanovnik Destang, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism
Association (CHTA).
Minister Bartlett described the initiative as a move toward
building a more integrated tourism economy by strengthening linkages between
tourism and agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, technology
and the creative industries.
Bartlett emphasized that the committee will be driven by
measurable targets and practical implementation with the goal of creating a
more resilient, inclusive and competitive tourism economy. “The future of
Caribbean tourism must be defined not only by resilience but by
transformation,” he said.
Minister Gooding-Edghill described the tourism supply side
initiative as a practical, action-oriented effort to strengthen the Caribbean’s
economic competitiveness by increasing the region’s capacity to supply its own
tourism industry. He said the initiative will help reduce import dependence,
retain more foreign exchange, contain inflationary pressures, stimulate
entrepreneurship and job creation, and build stronger regional supply chains.
Stressing the importance of implementation, Gooding-Edghill noted
that the committee’s success will depend on data-driven decision-making and
collaboration among governments, the private sector and development partners.
“This program is about us within the Caribbean region understanding how best we
can retain more of the foreign exchange that we earn within this region,” he
said.
Regis-Prosper said the new development marks the realization
of a long-envisioned strategy to strengthen the region’s tourism ecosystem.
“Tourism cannot work in the Caribbean if it’s an insular approach. It has to be
a regional approach with the Caribbean brand leading first,” she said.
The strategy also envisions the development of critical
elements including a regional logistics hub, a dedicated tourism bank, a
regional pension plan for tourism workers and expanded capacity-building
initiatives to create a more resilient and inclusive tourism economy that
retains more value within the Caribbean.
Destang welcomed the committee as an accelerator of
long-standing private-sector efforts: “The first chapter of Caribbean tourism
was attracting visitors. The second chapter was growing arrivals. The next
chapter is maximizing the value that tourism creates for our Caribbean people.
That is why today’s launch matters,” he said. “Not because we’re just creating
another committee but because it creates another opportunity for government and
the private sector to work together toward a shared objective: a more resilient
and more inclusive Caribbean tourism economy.”
Chaired by Jamaica, the committee currently comprises 13 CTO
member states: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the
British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia,
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and will work
closely with the CHTA and CTO’s allied
members.
Partnerships with the Inter-American Development Bank and
other stakeholders will support demand-driven analysis and the development of a
regional logistics hub framework with initial deliverables targeted for early
2027.
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