Q & A with Gail Henry, CTO’s Sustainable Tourism Product Specialist

This is Gail Henry’s debut at the Sustainable Tourism Conference. She is the official of CTO for this STC, and for several months she has been dedicated in soul and spirit to the programming and organization of this important event. Now, expectations are growing, new flights are announced to make it easy to attend, and more and more tourism professionals are interested in attending this conference that will take place in Barbados from May 9th-12th of this year.

Effective Feb. 23, 2009 Gail Henry was appointed by the Caribbean Tourism Organization as the Sustainable Tourism Product specialist. She replaced Mareba Scott who left the organization in November at the end of her contract.

Gail Henry is a tourism professional with many years of experience, having worked as Senior Tourism Advisor and Head of the Advisory Unit of the Minister of Tourism in her native Trinidad and Tobago. In that capacity, she was responsible for sustainable tourism issues, policies and project development and management, as well as implementing various programs. She also conducted research on a number of sustainable tourism subjects, including rejuvenation of declining tourist destinations, destination strategic planning and tourism policy development.

Ms. Henry is a graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI) where she earned a Master’s in Business Administration. She also completed – with distinction – an MSc in Tourism Marketing at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, a program for which the CTO Foundation granted her a scholarship in 2007.

She will lead CTO’s agenda to develop and deliver an annual program of activities which seeks to enhance the growth, quality, competitiveness and sustainability of the Caribbean tourism product. This includes helping to develop quality standards for Caribbean destinations and their tourism products and services; designing, delivering and/or coordinating training and development programs, dealing with sustainable tourism and product development; helping to create a stronger link between the product development and marketing activities of the CTO and its member countries; and providing and/or facilitating technical advice/assistance on management issues related to product development and sustainable tourism matters to Ministries of Tourism, Boards of Tourism and other public and private sector tourism entities in the CTO member states.

How are you going with the program?
The development of the program for STC-11 is going very well. The theme of this year's Conference is “Keeping the Right Balance: Creating Opportunities through a World Class Sustainable Tourism Product”. We have a very diverse group of local, regional and international speakers who all have significant expertise in addressing the key aspects of sustainable tourism and heritage conservation that will be addressed at STC-11. Just to highlight a few of them, the Keynote Speaker will be Mr. Jonathan Tourtellot, Director, and Geotourism Editor, National Geographic Traveler, who developed the concept of geotourism and is quite knowledgeable about destination stewardship issues.

Dr. Kwame Boafo from UNESCO will be speaking on some of the available opportunities that Caribbean destination can benefit from in relation to developing World Heritage Sites. Ms. Mary Mahon Jones will be focusing on how destinations can tap into the potential of the North American Market for cultural tourists. Mr. Jason DeCaires Taylor - the designer of the Underwater Sculpture Museums - will be presenting on his creative efforts to conserve marine biodiversity in the Caribbean. There will also be a special presentation on Haiti after the recent earthquakes.

Other conference topics include how the region can address some of the challenges of developing a sustainable tourism industry such as post-disaster destination recovery, public-private sector cooperation, global sustainable tourism standards, and biodiversity conservation and turn them into opportunities for product development and destination marketing. Of course, the contemporary issues of climate change adaptation and developing green destinations will also be areas of focus given the latest global developments.

What are your expectations with this STC?
I anticipate that STC-11 will be successful in bringing together a broader cross-section of delegates than ever before. This should provide a rich exchange of ideas, opinions, networking opportunities and solutions to some of the key challenges that the Caribbean tourism industry is facing today. We are therefore actively encouraging participation from all of our Member Countries as well as from a cross-section of local, regional and international organizations as well as students.

We are also inviting a mix of local, regional and international media to cover the conference given its importance. We are working very closely with the beautiful and world class host country - Barbados - to create an exciting, informative and hospitable atmosphere for all Conference participants. Delegates can look forward to enlightening panel presentations, interactive workshops, interesting study tours and several social events. STC-11 should not be a missed opportunity!