Regional Workshop:
“Towards National Strategies for Sustainable Heritage
Tourism Development in the Caribbean”
March 30 – 31, 2009
Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination
The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination (EBCCI) in collaboration with Legacy Barbados Inc. is organizing the Second Annual Regional Workshop on Heritage Tourism, March 30-31, 2009, in partnership with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the Barbados Ministry of Tourism, Barbados Tourism Investments (BTI), the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
This year’s event will focus on two thematic areas:
• Community Tourism
• Cultural Heritage
During the workshop, Dr. Michael Scantlebury of the Rosen School of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida will present the findings from last year’s conference in a paper entitled, “Challenges of and Opportunities for Heritage Tourism in the CARIFORUM Countries of the Caribbean”. As this year’s conference focuses on community tourism, the Caribbean Tourism Organization will make a presentation on “Best Practices in Community Tourism in the Region” and global award-winning Community Tourism entrepreneur, Ms Diana McIntyre-Pike, will share her experiences on “Country Style Jamaica”.
The objectives of the workshop are:
• To identify heritage tourism opportunities in the Caribbean
• To identify, understand and document the challenges facing heritage tourism
• To examine strategies to overcome these challenges
• To identify resources that can be mobilized to overcome these challenges
• To present research data on Heritage Tourism in the Caribbean
This workshop was first held on February 18-19, 2008 and brought together seventy participants from across the CARIFORUM countries in the Caribbean region including:
• Senior representatives of the tourism private sector and public sector agencies;
• Senior representatives of the public and private sector cultural heritage agencies;
• Senior officials of public and private sector education agencies;
• Senior representatives of the hospitality sector;
• Tertiary level tourism students.
It has been beneficial to participants through its analysis of best practices from across the region and its exploration of challenges and issues faced by Caribbean Heritage Tourism operations. This year’s focus will be the examination of some of the regional best practices in Community Tourism as well as obtaining some global perspectives on Cultural Heritage
From its inception, Legacy Barbados and the University of the West Indies have developed strategic partnerships to ensure that the development of a vibrant heritage tourism industry is facilitated through active dialogue, problem solving and sharing of experiences from regional and global experts. This is becoming even more critical given the mandate for countries of the region to diversify their tourism product in order to remain competitive and to offer visitors much more than the traditional "sun, sea and sand".
Workshop facilitators
• Dr. Michael Scantlebury, Rosen School of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, USA
• Diana McIntyre-Pike, Countrystyle Community Tourism Network
Important Links
• Presentations from Heritage Tourism Workshop 2008
• Community-based tourism document
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