View as Webpage

TOURISM MATTERS

“Tourism and Jobs: A better Future for All”

World Tourism Day 2019

Tourism can help us build a better future for everyone. Around the world, the tourism sector is the leading source of employment, supporting many millions of jobs and driving economies forward, both at the local and the national level.

At the same time, it is a catalyst for equality and inclusivity. In many places, tourism employment gives women, young people and those living in rural communities the chance to support themselves and their families and to integrate more fully into a wider society.

The true potential of tourism, both as a creator of jobs and as a driver of equality and sustainable development, is only just being realized. Providing decent work opportunities and contributing to developing professional skills are at the heart of this. Well managed, the continued growth of our sector will encompass countless opportunities and allow tourism to live up to its global social responsibility to leave no one behind.

Not one single economic, social or human activity prospers in isolation. For this reason, governments and stakeholders from the public and private sectors are increasingly working together to manage tourism in a responsible and sustainable manner and to ensure its enormous potential is properly realized.

Just as new technology is changing the way we travel, so too is it changing the way we work. Tourism is leading the way in providing workers with the skills and knowledge they need for the jobs of tomorrow. Embracing this creative spirit, including through effective collaboration with partners in the technology sector and in academia, will drive the creation of more and better jobs.

As we celebrate World Tourism Day, let us recognize the transformative power of tourism. Together, we can realize tourism’s potential to build a better, more equal future.

SLHTA President: Strategic Visioning and Planning Necessary for the Way Forward

The Saint Lucia Hospitality & Tourism Association (SLHTA) hosted its 55 ^th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 30 ^th August 2019, pledging its commitment to continue working in the best interest of its growing membership.

This year's AGM was held at the Finance Administrative Centre, attracting a wide cross section of the association's diverse membership. More than 80 companies registered their attendance for the event.

Among the global challenges, President of the SLHTA, Karolin Troubetzkoy cited were environmental disasters, natural catastrophes, the effects of climate change, recession affecting several countries, bilateral trade wars, Brexit, political posturing and unpredictable decisions by a new breed of international leaders. Read More.

WheelChair Presentation

The presentation of wheelchairs continued on 11 ^th September 2019 at the Children Development and Guidance Centre (CDGC). This time in addition to a number of regular wheelchairs, 10 specially fitted tilting chairs with added braces were donated.

Ms. Donette Ismael, TEF Programme Manager and Lisle Chase, Matthew Render and Konrad Wagner from Rotary attended the function. This project would not have worked without SLHTA's Tourism Enhancement Fund and its leadership, working with the Ministry of Health and Rotary on the project. Rotary said that they stand ready to repeat the exercise at any time.

The Saint Lucia Hospitality & Tourism Association

presents

SLHTA's Christmas Raffle

Saint Lucia Vies for 4 Global Titles at 26 ^th Annual World Travel Awards

CASTRIES – Tuesday 17 ^th September 2019 – Saint Lucia is thrilled to be nominated by the World Travel Awards for four (4) global titles that could see the destination being named the best among the world’s leading destinations.

 

In the 26 ^th annual World Travel Awards (WTA), Saint Lucia will vie for the titles of:

 

Voting for the WTA World categories is now open and runs until midnight on 20 ^th October 2019. Industry partners and the public are invited to vote and encourage friends and family members to do the same, as the nominee gaining the most votes in a category will be named as the winner.

 

World Travel Awards is the pre-eminent leader in the travel and tourism industry recognizing and upholding excellence across all sectors.

 

Saint Lucia has won the World's Leading Honeymoon Destination Award ten times, with the most recent honour bestowed in 2018. The destination has also won the Caribbean's Leading Honeymoon Destination Award, ten times in the last eleven years.

 

The red carpet World Travel Awards Grand Final Gala Ceremony – the world's premier gathering of tourism VIPs – will take place on 28 ^th November 2019 at Royal Opera House Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

The Linkages in Tourism Tradeshow - Business Profiles

BREAKFAST SEMINAR ON THE HOSPITALITY WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

The Saint Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association (SLHTA) and Springboard Caribbean invites members to attend a breakfast seminar at the SLHTA Training Centre, Rodney Heights, on Thursday 26 ^th September from 9am to 10:30am.

Who Should Attend: All HR Managers, Independent Restaurants Owners and other interested members.

The Purpose of the Seminar:  Workforce development is critical to the success of the hospitality industry particularly given the constant change and challenges of the external business environment. To remain competitive, the hospitality industry needs to pay attention particularly to the quality of service provision to attract and retain customers. This project, supported by SKYE Caribbean and funded by UKAID in partnership with Springboard Caribbean is designed to train, develop and UK certify over 200 young Saint Lucians (between the ages of 18 to 30) in hospitality industry skills, specifically in the areas of customer service, restaurant service and bar service.

This will be an interactive breakfast seminar to involve industry members in this exciting and fully funded programme to understand the scope of the initiative and to directly influence the development of the future workforce, particularly in the areas of:

i. Technical Skills and Knowledge : The formal certificated training programme requires trainees to undertake over 100 hours of intensive technical skills training including, customer service skills, food and drinks knowledge, preparing for service, food hygiene practices etc. Industry members will be invited to discuss and identify any additional gaps in technical skills and knowledge that they would like included.

ii. Soft Skills and Life Skills: Trainees will undertake over 40 hours of soft skills and life skills training as part of the programme. At the seminar, industry members will be invited to identify behavioural and attitudinal skills gaps that they would like to see addressed and included in the development programme.

iii.   Internship Opportunities: Industry members will be invited to consider becoming Employer Partners of the programme. This is an opportunity to take on well trained young people, into internship positions, who will offer some immediate value and hopefully, go on to become assets to your organisation.

The second half of the seminar focuses on Management and Leadership where Springboard Caribbean will present findings from its 2018 study identifying gaps in hospitality management & leadership and subsequent interventions to build capability in managerial and leadership disciplines to close those gaps.

We hope you take this opportunity to attend and to directly influence the development of your future employees. Please note that this is a free seminar however registration is required to facilitate catering arrangements.  Please contact Anya Whitfield at 758 452- 7347 / 758 456-0306 or email [email protected] to register your attendance before Monday 23 ^rd September 2019.

The Launch of the Low Carbon and Resource Efficient Action Plan for Accommodation Sector

The Launch of this Action Plan took place on Thursday 19 ^th September 2019 at the Bay Gardens Inn. The action plan will focus on climate and especially resilience. The United Nations Development Programme has developed this four year project, "Transforming Tourism Value Chain in developing countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to accelerate more resilient, resource efficient, low carbon development", and financed by the International Climate Initiative on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. The Action Plan helps increase Saint Lucia's competitiveness and resilience. It will also help Saint Lucia to meet its national and international commitments.

Click the link to view the action plan.

The information gathered during the development of this action plan, it can conclude that there is substantial consumption of energy from fossil fuel and high generation of waste without recycling. The action plan clearly states recommendations. In addition to this project the Regional Officer of Latin America and the Caribbean is leading another project on the phasing out of single use plastic towards clean seas and sustainable tourism in the Caribbean. This project aims to reduce the consumption and disposal of plastics by improving the capacity of hotels implementing sustainable and Eco innovative solutions. In order to address one of the hotspots in the action plan, part of the work in this initiative is to provide the hotel sector with sustainable alternatives to single use plastic and to recommend a way to adopt appropriate practices on management of plastic waste.

Campaigns involved to eliminate single use plastic targeting tourist hotel guests, staff and hotel managers and also promotes best practice and a development pledge by the private sector. In addition producing case studies, reports and lessons learnt from the project which will enable us to host similar activities, to replicate and be scaled up across the region.

The Saint Lucia Hospitality & Tourism Association (SLHTA) has been the focal point to which the project co-implemented by the Travel Foundation and the Ministry of Tourism have been coordinating and working together with the Association particularly in making contact and working together with the hotel sector.

As published in the STAR Newspaper

BAY GARDENS BEACH RESORT & SPA UNVEILING MODERN ROOM UPGRADES

A renovated room at Bay Gardens Beach Resort & Spa.

ST. LUCIA (9 ^th September 2019) - One of St. Lucia's leading family-friendly resorts has completed 80 percent of a major renovation process, presenting a fresh, modern and functional look for its new and repeat visitors.

Waltrude Patrick, General Manager of the 78-room Bay Gardens Beach Resort & Spa, announced that all 18 garden view, all 24 beachfront, and 20 pool view rooms have already been completely refurbished, with the remaining 16 pool view rooms to be finished in time for the start of the peak winter season in December.

Patrick reported that room upgrades include comfortable furniture and fittings in pastel colors (turquoise, lagoon, capri and rose oak) as well as new Wi-Fi-enabled Samsung and LG smart televisions. Read More .

Customer Service Boot Camp

The Human Development Network is pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response from our various partners whose representatives attended the Customer Service Boot Camps earlier this week. In response to the requests for another round of this workshop, they are delighted to announce this summer’s final Customer Service Boot Camp scheduled for Tuesday 24 ^th September 2019 at the SLHTA’s Hospitality Training Centre from 1:30pm – 4:30pm.  

If you missed our previous Boot Camps, please ensure you register as early as possible to ensure your space is reserved. Please call us at 717 4959 or email a completed registration form to [email protected] .

Click here to download a copy of the registration form .

Invitation to the Trust Pioneers Lecture 2019 and Request for a Panelist

Levern Spencer to represent Saint Lucia at World Championships in Doha

Levern Donaline Spencer is set to be Saint Lucia’s sole representative to the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019. Spencer, the two-time reigning Pan Am women’s high jump champion, is a previous World Championships finalist.One other Saint Lucian had qualified for the meet. But teenager Julien Alfred ended her season early through injury after setting national women’s records in the 100m and 200m. Pan Am bronze medalist in men’s javelin throw, Albert Reynolds, narrowly missed out despite producing another career-best mark.

The IAAF confirmed that more than 1,900 athletes from 209 teams will be in action in the Qatari capital between 27 ^th September and 6 ^th October.

SLHTA Champions Cup - Quarter Finals

The group stage of the SLHTA Champions Cup has concluded. The following teams have secured a place in the Quarter Finals. 

 

Group A

Coconut Bay topped the group with seven (7) points, having won two out of three of their games and drawn one (1). Sugar Beach are in second place with a total of four (4) points after registering 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss in their three group games. 

 

Group B

CDSL and Royal St Lucia Police Force both confirmed their places for the quarter finals after concluding the group stages with seven (7) points each.  Read More

 

HAVE A FANTASTIC MONDAY