PRESS
RELEASE

PAHO Center Collaborating In Quality Tourism for the Caribbean Project

Washington, DC, July 23, 2003 (PAHO)—The sea and beaches of the Caribbean are among the most beautiful and exotic in the world, and the Caribbean is the most tourism dependent region in the world, with many of the fragile economies relying on the industry for the majority of their economic activity. To preserve these advantages, the Pan American Health Organization's Caribbean Epidemiology Center has developed a Quality Tourism for the Caribbean project in 13 Caribbean countries to improve safe, healthy and hygienic conditions and resource management practices for guests and staff in hotels and food service establishments.

The goal of the project is to improve the quality and competitiveness of the Caribbean tourism industry through the establishment and dissemination of quality standards, systems and registrations, designed to ensure healthy, safe and environmentally conscious products and services for guests and staff. To develop QTC standards, products and services the first-ever Caribbean-wide, health and environment needs assessment was recently conducted in the region's hotel and restaurant industry.

In many Caribbean countries, tourism's share of the gross domestic product is as high as 70 percent. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated Caribbean travel and tourism employment at 2.1 million jobs or 14.1 percent of total employment in 2002.

The Project's achievements to date include:

• The development of the first comprehensive, Caribbean-wide health and environment standards for the tourism industry.
• An HIV/AIDS program for the Caribbean tourism sector. The aim of this program is to increase the capability of the tourism sector to proactively respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic through the development of policies for the workplace and industry specific educational programs.
• Capacity development through training and certification of over 1000 private and public sector staff in food safety management and environmental management with international certification.
• A methodology for integrated, health and environment (clean and green) audits of large and small hotels, which is more holistic and efficient than separate audits.
• A pilot survey on Travelers Health and Safety initially conducted for Tobago. The results will be used for a Tourism Health and Safety Information Management System.
• Markedly increased sensitivity in private and public sectors to health and environment as a critical success factors in profitable and sustainable Caribbean tourism.
• The development of a range of other alliances and partnerships with regional and international agencies to extend the range and impact of the project.

In order to achieve the project's ultimate goal of improving the quality and competitiveness of the Caribbean tourism industry, the following areas have been identified as being critical:

• Implementation of ongoing health, injury and environment needs assessment and surveillance systems to provide information to guide interventions, policy, planning and evaluation. This system would provide continuous and systematic collection and analysis of data on the occurrence, distribution and causes of food and water borne diseases and injuries in the Caribbean tourism sector. It would also act as an early-warning system to the hotels, stakeholders, health departments and tour operators to prevent, control and minimize these problems.
• Development of audit capacity and the phased implementation of a certification system. This will certify and market participating hotels and other tourism businesses that meet the QTC Standards to regional and international tour operators and travel agents.
• Provision of continued training to hotel and tourism businesses for the development of Sanitary Standard Operating Procedures, which are fundamental to the implementation of a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. This system is the international food safety management tool of choice for the tourism industry. This can be done through the development of a comprehensive HACCP training program for hotel and tourism businesses.

The long-term future of QTC, as viewed by both CAREC and CAST, is that of a regional certification commission for Caribbean tourism standards. This expanded body will continue to build on the already existing regional and international alliances and incorporate new ones as the scope of the commission grows.

Over the next 12-18 months, the project hopes to obtain additional resources to continue with the mission of helping make the Caribbean the safest and healthiest of comparable destinations in the world.

PAHO was established in 1902 and is the oldest public health organization in the world. It works with the countries of the Americas to improve health and quality of life for all their peoples. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization.