An Aggressive Tourism Plan

Anyone who listened to the presentation of the report and recommendations contained in the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan, prepared for Anguilla by Halcrow/CHL Consulting, will have to admit that he or she was very much impressed by its scope and vision. Easily, the report, with its expert detail and analysis, must be adjudged to have been the most thorough and ambitious attempt to put Anguilla’s tourism on a sound footing. It is also an aggressive plan to radically turn around the industry not only in these challenging economic and financial times, but at a period when Anguilla is facing stiff competition in the marketplace.

But by itself the plan is not a magic formula to achieve the carefully crafted recommendations. The report can quickly gather dust on the shelves like many other excellent reports on various matters of development which were researched and presented at great cost over the years. The truth is that the situation to remedy in Anguilla is critically urgent as tourism is both the lifeblood of the economy, impacting every business, and the livelihood of so many people on the island. It is no exaggeration that there is plenty of suffering in Anguilla, and unless something is done quickly, in terms of economic development, the plight of the island and its people will worsen considerably.

And yet to restructure and re-direct the tourist industry is no quick fix for the economy. It is a pity that Anguilla has sat on its laurels as a successful destination, for so long, before realising the need to explore greater tourism initiatives to maintain its distance from other competitors and somehow to stay ahead of the market. Just the other day the Government and industry partners were scratching their heads to arrive at some of the reasons for the decline in visitor arrivals and to find solutions to move forward.

The just-submitted Sustainable Tourism Master Plan contains many of the solutions. The next step is to see how best and how quickly some of its recommendations can be implemented. It was a smart decision by the Government to have in place a number of representatives from regional and international lending agencies to discuss funding some of the initiatives, the next day or so, following the presentation of the report and recommendations. What we now need to draw up is an action plan and to tick off every accomplishment as we proceed. The consultants have made it clear that beyond the submission of their report there is nothing more they can do in terms of fulfilling its objectives. It is therefore up to the Government, its advisers and industry partners to take up that task and run with it.

In the meantime, as stated earlier, there is a need to pursue every means to promote economic development so that jobs and money can flow into the island. One possible way of achieving this is to follow-up some of the Memorandums of Understanding which a number of potential investors have entered into with the Government. Chances are that one or two of them may find it possible, despite the global economic and financial recession, to undertake some construction work as an indication of good faith and meaningful participation in the island’s development.

Although the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan has already been formulated, the projects already agreed to can certainly fit within its provisions and stand to benefit from any of the recommendations which would improve the industry. We must start somewhere. The plan submitted by Halcrow/CHL Consulting is aggressive in its scope and certainly achievable.