Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Tourism Ministers are considering short and medium term measures to address declining visitor arrivals believed to have resulted from the increase in regional airfares. This is among the conclusions of a recent meeting in Montserrat. The Ministers have pointed out that the increase in airfares has resulted in significant reduction in Caribbean business into the OECS and that this situation requires urgent attention. The declines in visitor arrivals in the OECS were most significant in St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. In the short term the Ministers have recommended that the appropriate authorities in each Member State engage in dialogue with regional air carriers to determine the scope for entering into arrangements that could reduce the cost of airfares to OECS Member States. The Tourism Ministers concluded that the high cost of air travel in the Caribbean was structurally determined and therefore suggested that it was difficult for carriers to offer a reliable and affordable air service without some support from the governments of the region. It was decided that a recent agreement by Caricom Ministers of Tourism and Civil aviation, arrived at in San Juan on October 19, known as the San Juan Accord, will serve as the framework for any action that OECS Member States might wish to consider over the medium term, towards a solution to regional air transportation challenges. The 6th meeting of OECS Ministers of Tourism also looked at the status of hospitality training and stressed the need for collaborative approaches to ensure that all training undertaken conforms to comparable international standards. They agreed that all training institutions should be appropriately accredited and recognized across the entire Caribbean region. This will facilitate the easy movement of training providers across the OECS to undertake the training of new entrants in particular into the tourism and hospitality industry, as and when required. To help boost the hospitality sector the Tourism Ministers endorsed the soon-to-be launched St Lucia/World Bank “Skills for Inclusive Growth” project as a model for all of the OECS. This project is based on a market-driven approach to skills training where the hotels and other companies in tourism apply for funding from a central pool of resources and designate certified trainers to conduct training of new entrants as well as existing staff in the industry. A major feature of this approach is that hotels and other companies involved will make counterpart contributions to the training effort and in so doing reduce over-reliance on public funds and contribute to the sustainability of the scheme. Another highlight of the OECS Tourism Ministers meeting was discussions held on the urgency to expand linkages between agriculture and tourism, in response to a presentation made by a representative of the Inter American Institution for Corporation in Agriculture (IICA) on the Caribbean Agro-Tourism Strategy 2007-2017. On this matter the Ministers underscored the need for the OECS member countries to deepen their relationship with IICA, as a means of securing maximum benefits for the OECS by way of technical assistance, advice and capacity building, in forging greater linkages between Agriculture and Tourism. The delegates further noted the importance of collaboration between the IICA and Chambers of Agriculture being established in the OECS, in order to achieve the institutional link required for sustainability. Rodinald Soomer, Head of the Macro Economic Policy Unit at the OECS Secretariat commented that the 6th meeting of the OECS Ministers of Tourism was very important as it explored crucial areas of collaboration: “The Ministers left the meeting with a feeling of comfort and the assurance that there was renewed commitment to collaborate to the mutual benefit of all OECS Member States.” The OECS Secretariat is coordinating the presentation of recommendations by the Ministers of Tourism to the OECS Authority which is the highest decision-making body in the OECS. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com