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Dr Clifford Griffin (right) with Ms Elmeader Brookes, Hon Malcolm Guishard and Mr Tyrone OFlaherty, in Minister Guishards office at Marion Heights. |
Charlestown Nevis (February 1, 2005) -- A one-day symposium on visitors safety and security in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis will be held in St. Kitts on Thursday February 17.
Facilitator of the symposium, Nevisian-born Dr Clifford Griffin of the North Carolina State University, said on Friday in Charlestown that he was in the Federation as a consultant to CPEC, who are jointly sponsoring the event with the Association of Caribbean States (ACS).
Dr Griffin held discussions with the Minister of Tourism in the Nevis Island Administration, the Hon Mr Malcolm Guishard in his office at Marion Heights. Also attending the meeting were the Permanent Secretary, Mr Tyrone OFlaherty and the Director of Research and Development in the Ministry of Tourism, Ms Elmeader Brookes.
The Symposium is scheduled for February 17 and so I am here doing preliminary work speaking with key stakeholders and providing input and advice into the structure and content of the symposium, observed Dr Griffin, who later travelled to St. Kitts for a similar mission.
He said that he had a very constructive conversation with the Nevisian officials, with regard to a number of issues pertaining to the tourism sector, what some of those concerns are and how the symposium itself might help to assist the ministry in developing programmes to secure the industry.
He noted that the symposium would be geared towards bringing tourism stakeholders together, having them have a conversation with one another to dispel some of the misperceptions that different stakeholders may have of each other.
The symposium, according to Dr Griffin, would also help stakeholders to underscore important points, that in tourism security is a shared concern and that law enforcement activities are part and parcel of economic development, because tourists are now demanding security as prerequisite to going to a destination.
Minister Guishard told Government Information Service that at the meeting with Dr Griffin they looked about development of tourism on Nevis and about the symposium in general, and what they expect to get out of the symposium.
He said that his ministry would look at offering encouragement to stakeholders in the industry in Nevis to attend this symposium. He added: We are hoping that as many representative groups as possible would attend the symposium and whatever knowledge they would have gained from this symposium they would impart to the Nevisian public.
