The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization renewed their collaboration through the signing of a third Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The MoU will enhance the synergies between the three organzations, for collectively addressing health safety and environmental sanitation threats to the tourism sector to promote healthier safer tourism in the Caribbean.
Within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding, CARPHA, CTO and CHTA will focus on
- Information Monitoring and Response Systems to provide timely alerts of public health events to support health surveillance and response efforts within the tourism sector;
- Hospitality, Health, Safety and Environmental Standards and a Recognition System to establish a credible and affordable regional and recognition system for improving health, safety and environmental quality in the tourism establishments;
- Health and Wellness Programmes in the Tourism Workplace to encourage and promote a healthy tourism workforce;
- Multi-sectoral tourism and health partnerships to address the critical link between health and tourism
The collaboration also reflects the parties’ commitment to the recognition of the respective roles of the CTO and CARPHA as the leading public-sector agencies in the Region with a focus on matters related to regional tourism policy, planning and development and regional public health; and the CHTA as the region’s foremost private sector tourism organization with a focus on the regional hospitality industry.
CARPHA has maintained consistent partnerships with CHTA and CTO, having previously signed Memoranda of Understanding in 2014 and 2017. The Agency, in collaboration with the CHTA and CTO conducted 23 COVID-19 Prevention and Control Training Sessions in which 5257 persons received training from June 2020 to April 2023.
This five-year MoU further focuses on the relationship between the three organzations, towards establishing resilience and sustainability of the region’s tourism product through the collaborated execution of the Regional Tourism and Health Program.
The signing took place on 24 April 2023, as part of the Regional Tourism and Health Steering Committee and Stakeholders Meeting which was conducted ahead of CARPHA’s 67th Annual Health Research Conference at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, The Bahamas.