This is an exciting and befitting announcement because Grenada is referred to as the ‘Island of Spice’ and will host the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) conference in 2024 that will have sustainability as its focus. Set amongst the Windward Islands, Grenada’s rich biodiversity and vibrant landscapes truly highlight the possibility of sustainability and tourism co-existing, which is what the CTO 2024 conference will indeed emphasise.
Petra Roach, CEO of Grenada Tourism Authority, confirmed that for the duration from April 22 to 24 this year, the conference would provide a chance to expose regional tourism stakeholders to vicissitudes and possibilities of imagining Caribbean tourism in the future bearing in mind repercussion of global warming.
‘That Grenada has recently been nominated for “Caribbean’s Leading Beach Destination 2023”, “Caribbean’s Leading Nature Destination 2023” and “Caribbean’s Leading Tourist Board 2023” at the auspicious World Travel Awards is opportune and propels a conversation on sustainable tourism development at an appropriate time,’ she stated.
These nominations certainly suggest a strong partnership between Grenada and the tourism industry in their effort to embrace eco-tourism. The matter is not just about gaining from the sector but acts that are of mutual benefit given the challenges faced by Caribbean nations such as climate change. Additionally, the region long dependent on tourism as its economic backbone is particularly vulnerable to its impact and therefore must learn how to contain it and adjust to new realities.
A Potential Avenue for this transformation is the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), based in Barbados. CTO’s vision of positioning the Caribbean as the most desirable, year-round and warm-weather destination is built on sustainability and is a call-to-action to its diverse Caribbean countries and territories – so many French-, Dutch- and English-speaking ones.
‘Leading Sustainable Tourism – One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean’ is not just a slogan; it embodies the CTO’s essence of bringing different and unique islands towards the same quest of sustainable tourism. This unity, reflected in the pledge ‘One Caribbean’, is an acknowledgement that the problems of climate change are broader than any specific jurisdiction but encompass activities within the whole Caribbean Sea and region.
CTO’s commitment to Sustainable Tourism development for its members, including Grenada and providing specialized support in sustainable tourism development, marketing, communications, advocacy, research information technology and event planning and execution. CTO is a steward of change needed in the region as sustainability is a drumbeat for everything that org does.
In 2024, the world’s attention will be towards Grenada for this important conference and a symbol of global responsibility. As Petra Roach envisages it, ‘The CTO conference will be the benchmark event for the region on sustainable tourism’. Sustainable practices are not luxury any more but a necessity. Caribbean tourism must wake up or, at the least, learn.
The conference will involve stakeholders in the industry, government and academic field all whom will share best practices, challenge norms and develop new paradigms. A country that will try to demonstrate that it has integrated the idea of sustainability in a rapidly nightingale business – Grenada, Fabatial.
Being a host of the conference in Grenada and multiple nominations in the Caribbean tourism segment is an acknowledgment and a chance to establish sustainable way for Caribbean tourism. As we wait for the 2024 conference, one thing is clear: Grenada – the Caribbean’s Road to sustainable tourism.
Abdul Rafay Afzal is from Lahore, Pakistan currently a law student at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. He writes perceptive columns on geopolitics, international relations, and legal affairs etc. in more than 10 countries providing unique insights into the global landscape in different Pakistani and International Newspapers and Media outlets in English & Urdu languages.Email:[email protected] Instagram: @arafzal555
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