Road Town, Tortola - Permanent Secretary in the Premier’s Office Mrs. Rosalie Adams and Acting Director of the BVI Tourist Board Ms. Hadassah Ward is representing the Territory at the Ninth Meeting of the OECS Council of Tourism Ministers in St. Lucia today.

Discussions will centre on an OECS Tourism Sector Work Programme for 2010– 2011, the adoption of a report of the Eighth Meeting of the OECS Council of Tourism Ministers and an OECS Regional Tourism Brand project.

Speaking with the Department of Information and Public Relations, Mrs. Adams who is heading the BVI delegation on behalf of Premier Hon. Ralph T. O’Neal, OBE, highlighted areas which are of benefit to the Territory.

“Some areas where the Territory will be interested in partnering are the development of statistics for tourism, the health and safety of visitors and the joint marketing of the different destinations,” Mrs. Adams said.

Speaking on the joint marketing of destinations, the Permanent Secretary explained, “We believe that the BVI can benefit from marketing our activities with the rest of the OECS so that we can utilise one set of funds and one marketplace. We have been working unilaterally on all these areas ourselves, with some success, but we believe when we do it with the other OECS countries we should be able to benefit significantly.”

The permanent secretary also added, “With all the downturn in the global economies, everyone is trying to see how we can benefit most from the tourism sector. As a member state of the OECS, it is good when we can meet and discuss these very critical matters to assist us in improving our tourism sector at this critical time.”

Other agenda items include civil aviation, tourism and hospitality training, and an initiative by the International Financial Corporation of the World Bank on Tourism Sector Competitiveness.

The OECS is a nine member grouping of which the Virgin Islands and Anguilla are associate members. The seven member states are Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.