NOW, MORE than ever, when the Caribbean region needs to consider all practical options to secure advantages in meeting the challenges of global economic recession, one proposal that emerged at the recent 13th Sustainable Tourism Conference in Guyana deserves consideration for action.
The proposal, as raised by former Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo, in delivering the keynote address at the three-day event, involves the revamping of immigration policies with the introduction of a single visa for entry by non-Caribbean citizens as a core feature to boost regional tourism and generally make intra-regional travels less complicated.
Secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Hugh Riley, lost no time in embracing the idea of a common visa to better attract foreign tourists to this region with its heavy dependence on growth of the vital tourism sector to push social and economic development.
Ample evidence
“Our commitment at the CTO,” Riley was to point out in reacting to the Guyanese leader’s suggestion, “is to encourage the removal of any hindrances to Caribbean tourism . . . .
“We know that there is ample evidence around the world that relaxing visa requirements increases tourism arrivals. So the more serious we are in the Caribbean about enhancing our competitive position and prospecting for new business, the more eager we will be to use the tools available to reduce restrictions to travel . . . .”
The question is how vigorously the secretariat of the CTO is prepared to market the idea of one Caribbean visa to the region’s Heads of Government with a specific focus on boosting tourism, particularly from non-significant sources – like, for example, China, India and Brazil, as Jagdeo suggested – albeit with due consideration of national/regional security concerns.
CARICOM governments should be quite forthcoming in enabling serious consideration on the modalities of a “one Caribbean visa” policy, bearing in mind the experiences gained when such an idea was first implemented to facilitate global fans for Cricket World Cup 2007 in our region.
We had successfully done so, after overcoming initial problems in relation to the execution of security safeguards. The foundation, therefore, already exists for a serious, concerted and collective effort to institutionalise a single Caribbean visa policy within CARICOM that could significantly result in attracting foreign tourists across continents.,
Perhaps the time has come for a presentation to the CARICOM Heads of Government to have the issue appropriately considered by the Prime Ministerial
Sub-committee on Crime and Security that also deals with related immigration policies.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.
