Tourism Awareness Month seeks to educate and expose…says Minister Skeritt

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter~SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OCTOBER marks the celebration of Tourism Awareness Month, a Ministry of Tourism initiative that aims to raise awareness of the opportunities that exist within the industry.

This is the third year that this programme has been observed, and the theme is “The Time Is Now, The Opportunity Is Yours”.
The initiative was previously week-long but, as the Minister with Responsibility for Tourism, the Hon. Ricky Skerritt stated, that time period was insufficient to focus properly on each activity.

“The task is to bring awareness and to educate people about the industry. We found that cramming everything into one week was an ineffective way to get the message across; so we decided to extend the period.”

The Hotel and Tourism Association (HTA) kicked off the month-long celebration when they hosted the Caribbean HTA Small Hotels Retreat from October 1 to 3. On Tuesday, October 7, local tourism experts visited various schools island-wide and delivered speeches on the features and components of the industry.

Hoteliers and dive operators attended a marine tourism workshop on Wednesday (Oct. 8), where discussion was centred on the diving market in St. Kitts and Nevis, and the creation of a package to attract consumers.

Upcoming events include the Students Work Experience Programme from October 13 to 16, World Food Day on October 16 and the St. Kitts Soca Weekend and the International Soca Awards on October 16-18.

~~Adz:Right~~Thursday, October 23 has been designated National Clean-up Day while there will be a Schools’ Pan Competition on the following day. Museum Awareness Day falls on the 25th while the Chef of the Year Competition will try to tantalise the taste buds on the 28th.

The launch of the National Carnival 2008-09 St. Christopher Heritage Society Annual Raffle and Dinner Fundraiser will be held on October 31. On November 1 there will be a tourism awards banquet in which persons who have made outstanding contributions to the local industry will be honoured for their service.

According to Skerritt, tourism awareness cannot be defined in the scope of a week, a month or even a year.

“It is important that stakeholders in the industry and future stakeholders are brought together so that ideas and information can be exchanged, and respect and value for this critical sector can be gained.”