Tourism development in focus
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT in St Vincent and the Grenadines again came under wider focus yesterday (Monday, September, 15) with the holding of a Stakeholders Conference. This attracted several key players in the regional and international tourism industry looking at ways and means to further boost the Vincentian experience and sustainably grow the industry.
The Conference was timed such that it preceded the official start of the 2025/26 tourism season which traditionally begins at the beginning of November, and it is hoped that recommendations from the expected high-level discussions would contribute towards sustainable growth in tourism development.
These high-level exchanges come on the heels of a major announcement by the finance minister, Camillo Gonsalves of major new investments in hotel construction in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
These are located along the Leeward coast of the mainland which previously were overlooked where tourism investment is concerned.
The developments also follow the success of the Sandals Resort at Buccament which has not only substantially increased hotel stock and tourism arrivals, but has also generally increased confidence in the local hotel sector. It was Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who gave figures to the most recent decision by Sandals, when last month, he revealed their intention to invest in excess of $US 375 million in further hotel development.
Indeed, it is remarkable to reflect on the rapid development of tourism in this country where previously the only large scale development of tourism was in the Grenadines – mainly Canouan and Mustique.
A range of factors has contributed towards this change, but none so impactful as the construction and operation of the international airport at Argyle. That intervention came just as air access to this country, and others like Dominica, had become a critical factor in the very survival of the tourism industry. It has had a dramatic and transformational effect on tourism locally. As it stands today, tourism is now being pursued as a major plank in the economy of St Vincent and the Grenadines, creating direct and indirect employment for hundreds of citizens.
Such are the possibilities that even the government, recognising the need to boost hotel stock to take advantage of these possibilities, got involved in investment in hotel construction, for which it has incurred criticism.
As it stands now, a remarkable transformation has been taking place on mainland St Vincent itself where tourism is concerned. The growth of a tourism industry, and the overall hospitality sector, has important economic and social implications.
In the first place, the boost in employment in the industry has a positive effect on the local economy; but there is much more. Each occupied hotel, each B&B taken, means more mouths to be fed, and being fed, more services to be provided and being provided. When this happens rapidly, it has implications especially in regard to feeding our guests while providing local food security. If we do not plan for such an influx of visitors, then we can find ourselves having grossly inflated food import bills, and an agriculture sector hardly benefitting from tourism growth. In fact, the more we attract visitors, the more we ought to be boosting our local food production. Failure to do so, will result in a dramatic bleeding of our foreign exchange reserves to fund imports.
For all these reasons a dramatic increase in our tourist arrivals therefore has broader economic and social implications.
The bigger the hotel stock, the greater the demand for food and services. Indeed, already there is evidence that tourist demands for local food is beginning to impact on the local market. Tourism growth therefore, must go hand in hand with our agriculture sector and related contributing sub-sectors- there must be balance.
We hope that even given the limitations of time, the wider implications of rapid tourism development will be central to discussions on the industry nationally, and this will not be a once-yearly examination of the state of our tourism industry.
We must not wait until we are overrun to act.
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