Everything in tourism is connected – Rainer

As key tourism stakeholders continue to champion climate initiatives and seek lasting solutions to safeguard the region’s natural resources, there is heightened emphasis on the significance of developing sustainable infrastructure and a solid regulatory framework to minimise negative climate change impacts on the tourism sector.

“Everything feeds into another industry. When we talk about agriculture, it is highly connected to water management, to waste management, to transportation. It’s of course very connected to the hotel and tourism industry but also to the small and medium-sized businesses as well,” Gebhard Rainer, Sandals Resorts International’s Group chief executive officer, told the recently concluded Caribbean Infrastructure Forum.

Speaking on the topic, ‘Critical Infrastructure Investments to Mitigate the Effects of Climate Change on Caribbean Tourism’, Rainer noted that it was impossible to single out any one area when it came to the infrastructural changes that needed to be implemented.

He said climate change and its effects did not only impact the hotel and tourism industry as each sector depended on the other for the success and survival of our respective economies.

With many local industries relying heavily on the natural environment, the conversation, though not new, is especially pertinent as the global community faces unprecedented levels of climate deterioration.

Rainer said the employment of responsible environmental practices impacts not only businesses but the communities these sectors serve. He said it is important then to educate private and public entities and the community on how they can be a part of the climate solution.

Stressing the need for more platforms for public and private bodies to develop initiatives that will positively impact the environment and support its longevity, he referenced some of the projects undertaken by the Sandals Resorts across the Caribbean. These include the successfully launched Sandals Foundation Future Goals Programme in which the company’s philanthropic organisation, the Sandals Foundation, partnered with a local Curacao-based plastic recycling company, Limpi, to collect fishing nets abandoned at sea and plastic waste to build football goals for schools across the island.

Panellists at the forum included Minister of Tourism and Ports in the Cayman Islands, Kenneth Vernon Bryan, and founder and CEO of CRDC Global, Donald Thompson. They emphasised the need for regulatory improvement across the Caribbean, remarking that critical infrastructure investments fall in the hands of stakeholders from both the private and public sectors, who continue to benefit from the region’s resources.