Always a highlight of the State of the Industry Conference, the Youth Tourism Congress took place on the final afternoon of this years conference, bringing Junior Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism from 14 Caribbean destinations together to present on a prepared topic, as well as on a mystery topic. This years congress was presided over by last years winner Rol-J Williams from Nevis.
Out of the three topics offered this year, only two topics were actually chosen by the YTC Junior Ministers – Greening Tourism and Film Induced Tourism. Ministers had three minutes to elaborate on how they would ‘Green’ a local event held in their country, or how their country would be suited for a film to be shot there, including example locations.
Every Minister spoke with a swagger, knowledge and confidence that belied their youth, presentations which would not have looked out of place on the main stage in any of the talks held at the State of the Industry Conference.
The Mystery Questions, assigned at random to the Ministers, included ‘What 3 points would you make to our schools 2016 graduation class to convince them to get involved in tourism’, ‘What 2 key measures would you put in place to increase repeat visitors and why?’ and ‘What 3 key things do tourists expect from their host-guest interaction?’
After a minute of preparation, Ministers had one minute each to speak on their given topic, with some brilliant ideas expressed considering the short time given to prepare.
Despite 28 excellent speeches between them, there could only be one Caribbean Junior Minister of Tourism who this year was the Junior Minister from Barbados!
