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Recognising tourism as a tool for economic development

David Jessop, Contributor

It is unusual for any prime minister to make a speech solely about the importance of tourism. It is even less likely that such remarks would be prefaced by the words "this is not a speech I had to make. It's a speech I wanted to make". But this is what Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron did, shortly before starting his vacation with his wife and family in Britain's far-south-western county of Cornwall.

Cameron's remarks were music to the ears of the Caribbean tourism industry stakeholders, who, for a long time now, have hoped that Caribbean heads of government would also recognise in a similar way the central role that the industry plays in the regional economy.

In his remarks, Cameron came across as an enthusiast for the role of tourism in economic development and, perhaps uniquely in British history, delivered a speech identifying tourism as an industry central to the United Kingdom's (UK) future economic growth.

"For too long," he said, "tourism has been looked down on as a second-class service sector. That's just wrong. Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise and a government that backs (it). It is fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy. It's one of the best and fastest ways of generating the jobs we need so badly."

third-highest export earner

Continuing, he noted that tourism was Britain's third-highest export earner, accounted for a quarter of all jobs and was helping rebalance the national economy. Tourism, he suggested, encouraged pride in a country, provided a reason to vacation at home and had to be made globally competitive.

"Space does not enable me to do justice to all that," he said, but he set out in considerable detail a tourism strategy for the UK that could virtually, word for word, be applied in the Caribbean. His government would involve itself more closely in the industry's future, local government had a central role to play, encouragement had to be given to the private sector, and policy in other areas had to impact favourably on tourism."We are going to be a government that understands the huge potential of our tourism industry and that gives the industry the backing it needs. A successful tourism policy needs an active and engaged government," Cameron concluded.

Applauding his remarks, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association suggested that the speech was applicable to the dilemma that the Caribbean tourism industry is facing. "The fact is, we have not had any Caribbean head of government publicly recognise in like manner the importance of this industry for its very real potential to economic development and as an alleviator of poverty in the region," the organisation observed in a letter to all of its members.

Why no Caribbean head has ever delivered such a passionate and detailed policy speech recognising tourism's economic value, and the need for a coherent and integrated approach, remains a mystery. It is an issue that requires serious public debate.