SKN Marks World Tourism Day
(ZIZ News) — On Sunday, St. Kitts and Nevis joined the rest of the world in the observing World Tourism Day 2015, under the theme “One Billion Tourists, One Billion Opportunities”.
During remarks to commemorate the day, Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Lindsay Grant, reflected on the theme, stating that “it reminds us all of our individual and collective responsibility to actively promote and safeguard our local tourism product, considering the many lives and livelihoods that are positively impacted by the industry.”
Minister Grant said that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, through the Ministry of Tourism, is dedicated to the continued development of the tourism industry.
Taking a regional approach to the observance, Hugh Riley, Secretary General and CEO of Caribbean Tourism Organization, said the emergence of the travel and tourism sector in the Caribbean coincided with the move away from complete reliance on Agriculture as the primary money earner.
He added that the decline of a variety of products including bananas, sugar, bauxite, vanilla and other such revenue earners meant that Caribbean countries needed another means to grow their economies and tourism was a natural fit.