CDB enhancing region’s tourism sector
THE tourism industry has become increasingly crucial for the growth of many of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Borrowing Member Countries’ (BMCs) economies, says Cheryl Dixon, CDB’s Co-ordinator of the Environmental Sustainability Unit.
The Board of Directors of the CDB has therefore approved EUR460 000 in grant financing to enhance the resilience of the Region’s tourism sector to the impacts of climate variability and climate change, and extreme weather events.
The grant will provide resources to support policy formulation and implementation, and promotion of best practices in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA); enhance tourism sector knowledge and awareness of DRR and the potential impacts of climate variability and climate change; and strengthen the capacity of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) Secretariat to provide technical assistance to support the delivery of climate services.
Planned activities under the grant include the revision of the 2008 Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework; development of a Caribbean Best Practices in Sustainable Tourism Manual; the updating and operationalisation of the Multi-Hazard Contingency Planning Manual; and the creation of Tourism-Climate Spatio-Temporal Statistical Modelling Frameworks for the Caribbean.
Dixon recalled that in 2015, travel and tourism contributed to over 14 per cent of gross domestic product and 13 per cent of total employment in the Region.
“The Caribbean tourism product depends largely on the environment and therefore, focus must be placed on the development of a sustainable tourism industry. As such, the formulation, incorporation and implementation of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies into BMCs’ tourism policies, plans and operations is essential.”
Funding will be provided under the African Caribbean Pacific-European Union-Caribbean Development Bank Natural Disaster Risk Management (ACP-EU-CDB NDRM) programme. It is being implemented in the Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, and aims to reduce their vulnerability to long-term impacts of natural hazards, including the potential impacts of climate change.