PRESERVATION OF LOCAL ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE KEY TO SUCCESS OF TOURISM POST COVID-19

Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 3, 2021 (SKNIS): St. Kitts and Nevis remains one of the pioneers of Sustainable Tourism across the Caribbean. On the June 3, 2021, edition of the “Working For You” programme, Country Coordinator for the Ministry of Tourism, Ms. Tessa Perkins, indicated that in order for tourism to succeed post-COVID-19, every member of society has a fundamental role to play.
 
“It goes on whether or not there are tourists…. The culture, the environment, and everything you see in your day-to-day life have to be maintained. It should still be respected and we should still feel proud and have pride, but ultimately when tourism rebounds it will be stronger because of that. With travel slowing down people are now becoming more aware of how their actions impact the world around them. People are becoming more aware, it can be hard to mitigate single-use plastics when so many of the things we usually use during COVID-19 need to be disposed of but we have to do our part,” said Country Coordinator Ms. Perkins.    
 
Since the reopening of its borders, St. Kitts and Nevis has seen a downturn in the tourism sector due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, Country Coordinator Ms. Perkins believes that this is now the ideal time to maintain and preserve our sustainable culture.
 
“In order for tourism to succeed, people do need to adhere to COVID-19 protocols and make sure that we are not getting too relaxed. It’s been over a year, things are good now, the vaccines are here, but there is still so much that needs to be done to make sure that we do not see a resurgence of cases. We need to be able to have travel return responsible and carefully to make sure that we are not going through a stop and start process,” said Ms. Perkins.
 
The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis through the St. Kitts Sustainable Destination Council (SDC), has been a member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) since 2012. It must also be noted that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is currently engaging stakeholders as a part of a 5-year plan to ban the use of single-use plastics.