PRESS RELEASE – THE President of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA) cited Saint Lucia’s vulnerability as a small Island state in a New Year’s message to members of the association.
Karolin Troubetzkoy said the SLHTA is heartened by the IMF’s positive assessment of this country’s economic performance and its projections for further growth of the economy in 2019.
However, the SLHTA President noted that notwithstanding this good news, “we are all mindful of our vulnerability as a small island developing state and realize that global economic and climate-related shocks can erode our hard-earned accomplishments in an instant.”
According to Troubetzkoy, to mitigate against this, building resilience into Saint Lucia’s infrastructure and tourism product, business recovery planning, networking with other SLHTA members, reducing operating costs and diversifying business investments are critically important.
“Efforts to protect and preserve our environment are equally important, including protection of our marine resources as well as our support for the elimination of plastic consumption throughout our island,” she observed.
“Together, we must continue to engage all stakeholders to ensure more sustainable use of our environment and promote the concomitant economic benefits for everyone,” the SLHTA President said.
She observed that construction, foreign direct investment and projected growth in tourism arrivals are among some of the positive expectations this year as tourism continues to play its part as key economic driver.
“We are eager to embrace and promote new destination marketing campaigns, increased airlift, hotel expansions and construction of new properties and new festivals,” she explained.