With expectations to welcome a bumper winter tourist season, stakeholders locally and across the Caribbean are being urged to strengthen efforts to get more young people involved in the bread-and-butter sector.

According to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), “Every part of the wide global tourism ecosystem will benefit enormously from embracing the power of youth. Right now, the planet is home to around 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10-24 years— the largest generation of youth in human history. Almost 90 per cent of them live in developing countries, and in many of them they make up the majority of the population. It’s here that they can make the biggest difference, and tourism is without doubt the most powerful vehicle to drive transformation and growth.”

In recognising the importance of youth engagement, the United Nation’s tourism body therefore advocated for young people to not only become beneficiaries of the sector’s restart, but as active participants in it. In enabling youth participation, the body in prioritising this objective further said that it will, through a number of education and training opportunities, seek to provide increased access to decent jobs as it brings more people to the sector.

“We are committed to going even further and now is the time to bring young voices on board as we make big decisions that will set the course for our sector in the years to come,” the UNWTO said.

With a number of steps now being taken in this regard, commendations were extended to organisations of the region such as the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) along with some government ministries and departments and private sector players who all have made significant effort in getting more youth to look at tourism as a first-choice career opportunity rather than a final course of action.

“Targeted education about tourism’s contribution to the socio-economic development of the Caribbean is still needed, and continued training is necessary to develop exceptional service standards across every corner of our Caribbean archipelago,” industry experts have said though crediting initiatives such as the Gordon “Butch” Stewart International School of Hospitality and Tourism and the GEMS Hospitality School in Dominica as noteworthy institutions that will go a far way in meeting some of the essential education goals and in offering young people interested in the hospitality sector the opportunity to gain practical skills.

“Smart tourism leaders understand that the strategic inclusion of youth in the policy sectors can produce strategies to open their destinations to the immense power of youth and student travel, which represents a significant component of international arrivals and generates hundreds of billions of dollars in tourism receipts worldwide,” the WYSE Travel Federation added.

Underscoring the message of World Tourism Day 2022, the UNWTO also said that countries now have an opportunity to rethink tourism, even as they assess where they are currently and how they plan to go forward.

“Young people must be active protagonists in this vital process. The climate action movement has shown what can be achieved if young voices are brought on board. Here, young activists have helped set the agenda and pushed governments to raise their ambitions—tourism must now do the same,” the organisation said.

The tourism and hospitality sector which creates a vast amount of employment globally also helps to drive exports and generate income for many around the world. According to industry statistics, the sector accounts for approximately 10 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP), ranking consistently as one of the sectors with the highest growth worldwide up until the start of the pandemic.

Locally, the recent launch of a $100 million fund facility for tourism entrepreneurs, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said will help to bring greater youth engagement to the sector while providing them with the needed funds to bring their ideas to life.

“We have put $100 million in the Exim Bank for these new ideas to be converted into material things that will add value and that the private sector is free to embrace,” he recently said.