-Minister Rodrigues calls for expansion of offerings, working formula for all Caribbean nations

WHAT will it take for the Caribbean tourism industry to compete, adapt, and thrive over the next decade, while also continuing to grow sustainably, inclusively and smartly?

This was the question asked during the ministerial panel discussion for ministers of tourism on Thursday at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC), 2026.

The participating ministers were Guyana’s Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Susan Rodrigues; Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister for Tourism, Commerce, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage for St. Lucia, Dr Ernest Hilaire; Minister of Health, Tourism and Sports for Anguilla, Cardigan Connor; Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism for the British Virgin Islands, Luce Hodge-Smith; and Minister of Tourism, Agriculture, Fisheries, Heritage and the Environment for the Turks and Caicos Islands, Zhavargo Jolly.

Minister Rodrigues in her comments underscored the need for partnership among Caribbean nations. According to her, the Caribbean tourism product is more about what unites us as a Region, than what separates us.

Using Guyana as an example, the minister said, “I think we received a very inspirational charge from His Excellency [President Dr Irfaan Ali] yesterday urging us to scale up, to scale up our thinking, to scale up our collaboration, and more importantly, to scale up the investment. Guyana is taking some bold steps in preparing our economy for diversification, sustainability, and sectors that will really continue to support our economy and insulate it from external shocks, whether it’s geopolitics or wars around the world, that can have a positive or negative effect on revenue and oil and gas resources. So, we cannot, as a country, risk putting all of our eggs in one basket.”

The minister further explained that this is why while Guyana produces oil and gas, it works to advance its tourism, and agricultural sectors.

Guyana, she underscored, has a lot to bring to the table in terms of experiences and projects it can work on alongside Caribbean regional partners to upscale offerings within the Region.

She stated that a formula must be developed and implemented so that Caribbean nations can support each other with different products, and multi-destination packages.

Minister Rodrigues further asked, “How do we appeal as a Region? First of all, what is the identity of the Caribbean tourism product?” In response she said, collectively the Region needs to look at our Caribbean identity and then market that to our visitors.

Tourism, she remarked, creates endless opportunities for connectivity and for growing investments. All of what is being done to diversify, expand, and grow our economies, is all connected, she emphasised.

According to Minister Rodrigues, “It’s all towards one purpose. So, building a road is not about getting to the destination, it’s about improving the quality of healthcare for our citizens here in Guyana. It’s about levelling the playing field. It’s about equity. Ensuring that people who live in the hinterland, people who live in the coastline, have the same access to quality of life; and that’s what we’re trying to do here in Guyana.”

For the Caribbean Region, tourism is one of its greatest economic engines, driving economic growth for each country that uses that sector to push development. As climate change reshapes coastlines, technology reshapes the way visitors plan their travel, and connectivity remains a central issue when it comes to Caribbean tourism.

Meanwhile, each minister underscored areas that need to be developed in the tourism industry across the Region.

The responses ranged from how locals benefit from the tourism industry, especially as it relates to ensuring communities benefit from tourism funds, to efforts to boost connectivity, to ensuring that income from sustainability, inclusivity and community-based tourism advancement is redirected to economies for economic development or even cultural preservation, to the need for partnership and collaboration among nations to fuel a better Caribbean tourism product.