Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 19, 2017 (SKNIS): The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) partnered with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) to establish a Regional Tourism and Health Programme (THP) in 2014.
Speaking on this week’s April 18th, edition of “Working for You,” Executive Director of CARPHA, Dr. C. James Hospedales said that the agency places significant value on its Regional Tourism and Health Programme. He added that while the combination of health and tourism may be unfamiliar to some, both topics work hand-in-hand when it comes to the overall success of tourism in the Caribbean.
“You may wonder what public health has to do with tourism. Tourism is our life blood in this region overall and most of the countries increasingly so,” he explained. “It is an industry that is vulnerable to threats of disease and environmental threats. So, by having in place good systems of monitoring and the people who are trained, you are able to rapidly respond; good systems of detection, you can protect the industry and protect our investment, image and protect people both residents and visitors.”
According to CARPHA’s official website, the programme aims “to improve the health, safety, and security of visitors and locals, and thereby contribute to enhancing the quality, competitiveness and sustainability of Caribbean tourism.”
It states that “tourism is vulnerable to health, safety and environmental sanitation (HSE) public health threats. These include disease outbreaks and deficiencies in environmental sanitation and food safety, which impact regional health security and the sustainability of Caribbean tourism sector.”
Dr. Hospedales said that the programme entails very innovative mechanisms, which are good not only for the region, but good for other parts of the world, and the funding agent, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
“They are excited about it,” he said. “We hope to bring it to the OECS with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank. We are in the process of negotiating that.”
The agency’s official website states that the THP “is a novel, integrated, programme with components of real time, early alert and response tourism based surveillance system, food safety and environmental sanitation training, HSE standards and tourism and health partnerships…
“Countries participating in the programme will have enhanced capacity to prepare for, respond to and mitigate against public health threats to sustainable tourism and regional health security. This is the first Caribbean-wide and global effort of its kind, setting an international precedent.”
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