Recent reports mentioned among others His Excellency Alain St.Ange, minister of tourism for the Republic of the Seychelles as a possible candidate to succeed Dr Taleb Rifai as the new UNWTO secretary General in 2017

Last night at a press conference in the capital of the Seychelles, Victoria, the minister was asked by eTN if he was a candidate for the post of the next secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

When asked Minister St. Ange conceded that many countries and many individuals had approached him and expressed their confidence in him that he should be nominated as a potential successor when a new Secretary General is elected at the Beijing UNWTO General Assembly next year.

Minister St. Ange however made it plain that his first duty was to his country and the Seychelles tourism industry. His role is to safeguard the gains of past years and build on the foundations of success for yet even better results in the future.

He said: “It took the Seychelles 40 years to reach 130.000 arrivals and in the space of the past seven years we more than doubled that figure.

It shows we are doing something right. He mentioned the industry is going through challenging times. When one market goes soft to due unforseen situations including terror,  we are now able to accelerate growth from other market places. This development must be safeguarded. I have a duty to my country and as a member of the cabinet of ministers my first and foremost obligation is to the Seychelles.”

Notably he did however not expressly rule out a candidacy at a later time.

Today the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) joins the world in recognizing and celebrating Earth Day.

We have been blessed with a beautiful environment, in which to live, work and invest. We welcome over 25 million visitors, who, for generations, have been coming to our region for rest, relaxation, respite and rejuvenation.

We have also been fortunate to have leaders in the tourism sector who remain conscious of the need to balance the pursuit of economic prosperity with the preservation and conservation of our historic structures, waters, forest areas, caves, mountains and wildlife. The trend toward more mixed-use construction in the tourism and travel sector is much welcomed; however, the level of awareness on the impact of our actions as a sector on the environment needs to be lifted significantly.

We at the CTO have been playing our part to ensure that our partners are more sensitive to the environmental issues in tourism, as well as the links between sustainability and our long-term success as an industry. Through our sustainable tourism product specialist, we have been able to institute and support a number of major initiatives.

The Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action project (CHENACT), a collaborative project with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the CTO and the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA), has the potential to save participating hotels hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs. Through sustainable destination management the Sustainable Destinations Alliance of the Americas, launched in March 2014, is harnessing the power of travel and tourism as a force for good in the Americas.

Our CTO Sustainable Tourism Conference, as well as the St. Eustatius Sustainable Tourism Conference, and the recently held Grenada CREST SYMPOSIUM for Innovators in Coastal Tourism, have served to highlight key issues affecting tourism sustainability, while the Caribbean Excellence in Sustainable Tourism Awards, has brought recognition to many individual tourism-related enterprises in member countries that go the extra mile to incorporate green practices in their value proposition with exemplary success.

We continue to use our annual youth symposium and student colloquium to challenge youth to think of ways to preserve the industry for future generations. These and other investments in education and public awareness are also key pillars in our sustainable tourism strategy, to ensure we have a constant stream of thought leaders to champion this important cause.

Another reality which keeps our attention is the fact that climate change and environmental degradation are often the result of the combined impact of millions of small, irresponsible acts.

We join the rest of the environmentally-conscious world in lobbying for a new international climate change agreement backed by supportive and where necessary, punitive national initiatives that encourage more responsible environmentally friendly behavior. Each individual, household, business and nation has to do its part to take care of our environment, now and always. We must always remember that there is a linkage between our ecosystem and its appeal as a tourism product, and the quality of life we enjoy in the Caribbean. The message to all tourism players in our beautiful region is therefore clear: To whom much is given, much is expected.