Caribbean countries are aware of the need for and importance of an effective regional tourism policy framework as the basis for a sustainable tourism product, an international tourism planning and product development expert has said.“There is a need to consider tourism as an important instrument for regional development and in order to achieve this we must be aware of the mechanisms that are available,” said Luis Chaves, the Sustainable Tourism Development Adviser to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

“It is important to know how to develop systems for intersectoral and integrated planning to ensure that tourism realises its fullest potential and, for this reason, we need to have strong and coherent policies and to look at best practices in countries that have been successful in implementing such programmes,” he added.

Mr. Chaves is one of four consultants assigned to the CTO as part of the Caribbean Regional Sustainable Tourism Development programme (CRSTDP), an eight million euro programme funded by the European Union (EU).

He has more than 20 years international experience and exposure in the travel and tourism industry in the areas of sustainable tourism planning and product development, human resource development and training and small enterprise development, among others.

He will make a presentation entitled, Policy Making and Integration as Key Starting points for Sustainable Tourism Intersectoral Planning, at the first working session of the Seventh Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development (STC-7), which takes place in Tobago from April 26 - 29, 2005.
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