Caribbean Tourism Organization Launches Landmark Tourism Supply Side Committee

Endorsing a new model of tourism that creates and retains greater value within the Caribbean, Dr. Terrance Drew, prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and chairman of CARICOM, is supporting the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) Tourism Supply Side Initiative, describing it as a critical step toward ensuring that tourism benefits the region’s people and economies.

Drew delivered the remarks during the launch of the new committee last week at Caribbean Week in New York. Speaking in his capacity as CARICOM chairman, Dr. Drew said the future of Caribbean tourism must be centered on creating greater value for the region by strengthening connections between tourism and the wider economy. He emphasized that the sector should support local entrepreneurs, rural communities, small businesses, women and youth while fostering innovation, regional integration and sustainable development.

“Tourism must not only create wealth in the Caribbean; it must help keep that wealth in the Caribbean,” he said.

The new committee represents a strategic shift from a traditional demand-driven focus on visitor arrivals to a comprehensive supply-side approach centered on workforce development, local supplier integration, logistics, infrastructure, digital transformation and public-private partnerships.

Joining Dr. Drew were Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s minister of tourism and chair of the new Tourism Supply Side Committee; Ian Gooding-Edghill, CTO chairman and Barbados’ minister of tourism and international transport for Barbados; Dona Regis-Prosper, CTO secretary-general and CEO; and Sanovnik Destang, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA).

Minister Bartlett described the initiative as a move toward building a more integrated tourism economy by strengthening linkages between tourism and agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, transportation, technology and the creative industries.

Bartlett emphasized that the committee will be driven by measurable targets and practical implementation with the goal of creating a more resilient, inclusive and competitive tourism economy. “The future of Caribbean tourism must be defined not only by resilience but by transformation,” he said.

Minister Gooding-Edghill described the tourism supply side initiative as a practical, action-oriented effort to strengthen the Caribbean’s economic competitiveness by increasing the region’s capacity to supply its own tourism industry. He said the initiative will help reduce import dependence, retain more foreign exchange, contain inflationary pressures, stimulate entrepreneurship and job creation, and build stronger regional supply chains.

Stressing the importance of implementation, Gooding-Edghill noted that the committee’s success will depend on data-driven decision-making and collaboration among governments, the private sector and development partners. “This program is about us within the Caribbean region understanding how best we can retain more of the foreign exchange that we earn within this region,” he said.

Regis-Prosper said the new development marks the realization of a long-envisioned strategy to strengthen the region’s tourism ecosystem. “Tourism cannot work in the Caribbean if it’s an insular approach. It has to be a regional approach with the Caribbean brand leading first,” she said.

The strategy also envisions the development of critical elements including a regional logistics hub, a dedicated tourism bank, a regional pension plan for tourism workers and expanded capacity-building initiatives to create a more resilient and inclusive tourism economy that retains more value within the Caribbean.

Destang welcomed the committee as an accelerator of long-standing private-sector efforts: “The first chapter of Caribbean tourism was attracting visitors. The second chapter was growing arrivals. The next chapter is maximizing the value that tourism creates for our Caribbean people. That is why today’s launch matters,” he said. “Not because we’re just creating another committee but because it creates another opportunity for government and the private sector to work together toward a shared objective: a more resilient and more inclusive Caribbean tourism economy.”

Chaired by Jamaica, the committee currently comprises 13 CTO member states: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and will work closely with the CHTA and CTO’s allied members.

Partnerships with the Inter-American Development Bank and other stakeholders will support demand-driven analysis and the development of a regional logistics hub framework with initial deliverables targeted for early 2027.

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