Saint Lucia: Cabinet to revise consultations for Tourism Development Bill

Castries, Saint Lucia: In November 2021, the Cabinet of Saint Lucia endorsed a request by the Ministry of Tourism for a revision of the Tourism Incentives Act. In order to fulfill this mandate, the Ministry of Tourism conducted a series of consultations involving stakeholders from all subsectors in the tourism industry to inform the draft Tourism Development Bill.

As per the various recommendations of the stakeholder consultations, the draft Tourism Development Bill was prepared. Presently, the Ministry of Tourism is inviting public comments on the draft bill. Cashama Barnette, Senior Tourism Investment Officer within the Ministry of Tourism, elaborates.

“The general intent of the Tourism Development Bill is to encourage more participation and ownership in the tourism industry while maintaining industry standards and providing superior customer service to those visting the island,” she said. 

“The Ministry of Tourism would also like create the infrastructure to provide civic and targeted resources for industry resilience—in other words provide assistance to service providers for recovery from natural and man-made disasters. 

The proposed bill also seeks to encourage use of local suppliers and supporting services as a means of making linkages and spreading the benefits of the Tourism Industry. We therefore would like to encourage feedback from all operators in the tourism industry as the feedback received will improve performance and effectiveness of the proposed bill.”

The deadline for comments is Sunday, July 31.