St. John’s Antigua- Ministers for tourism and Civil Aviation from across the OECS member states will meet in St Vincent next week to discuss and devise strategic solutions to tourism and aviation issues currently confronting the eastern Caribbean.
This joint meeting is in response to a decision taken at the OECS Council of Tourism Ministers at its 10th meeting and subsequently endorsed by the OECS authority in May of 2011.
The meeting is to address matters geared towards improving the attractiveness of the OECS airspace and accessibility of destinations in order to increase air passenger traffic in the region.
More specifically, the ministers will seek to identify priority areas of joint action, including the development of a common OECS air transportation policy and the preparation of airlift capacity studies to address the air service needs of the region and to guide OECS member states efforts at attracting and sustaining airlift.
The implementation of relevant aspects of the San Juan accord is another matter to be discussed.
Program Officer for Tourism at the OECS Secretariat Dr Lorraine Nicholas said the San Juan accord is essentially a set of decisions taken by ministers with responsibility for tourism and international transportation of member countries of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) at a meeting held in Puerto Rico in 2007.
She however explained that most of the decisions taken in San Juan have not yet been implemented and the ministers decided that rather than going back to the drawing board, they will review the San Juan accord and determine which decisions that are most relevant and should be implemented with a view to offering safe, secure and sustainable air services in the Caribbean.
The joint meeting, to be chaired by the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, was deemed important, given that not all ministers of tourism in the OECS are assigned the civil aviation portfolio.
While Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and St Kitts & Nevis have joint civil aviation ministerial portfolios, the ministries of tourism and civil aviation are separate in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St Lucia and St Vincent & Grenadines.
