The Second Annual Youth Panel Discussion took place December 4th and was heralded as one of the highlights of Tourism Week 2013 in Anguilla. The panelists were drawn from the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. The press and several members of the Anguilla public were present at the conference at which everyone deliberated about ways of improving the tourism industry on the island. “One of the major problems that we have encountered in tourism, over the past forty years, is that many of the people that enter the tourism industry in Anguilla are those that we would consider, quote on quote, uneducated. For that reason our tourism product has not grown and developed in a way that we would like to see it – but thank goodness for the brilliant crop of young people coming out of schools, ” said Parliamentary Secretary, Honorable Haydn Hughes.
Anguilla’s Deputy Junior Minister, Arielle Gaskin, stated: “Each and everyone has to be educated about the importance of tourism to Caribbean nations and what better way to educate them than with hands on interaction with the tourism industry – if we adopt a more holistic view of tourism hospitality that portrays not only the waitresses in the restaurants displaying a positive attitude towards our guests, but also the immigration officers at our ports. These persons are a part of our community and need to know what behavior is acceptable to our guests. “
Junior Minister, Malik Richards, suggested Sports Tourism, especially golf and tennis, as a way to diversify tourism in the country. He further stated, “We are no longer required to limit our product to the traditional concepts of the three S’s in tourism: Sun, Sand and Sea. While working with the facility management to organize and promote events at the Anguilla Tennis Academy, we can be assured of a captive market especially during the summer and slower periods,” he noted.
Anguilla is known for its low volume and high end tourism – and ideas of linkages in transportation and food, more inclusion of the “charming escapes” (like Shoal Bay and Anguilla Great House) and higher community spirit, were seen as ways of effectively combating cheaper flight destinations like Miami and Jamaica.
Honorable Haydn Hughes stressed the importance of tourism by saying, “Every single one of us has to provide that legendary service that tourist will go to other places and say that they need to go back to Anguilla. Wherever you work in Anguilla, you work in the tourism industry because without the tourism industry there would be no capital entering our shores, which means there would be no jobs. We have to own tourism because if we do not own it, we will lose it and if we lose it; trust me, there are competitors all over the world that are trying to grasp people that come to our shores.”
Article by Josharmond Romney
