Regional Tourism Officials to Participate in Corporate Social Responsibility Workshop

CASTRIES, SAINT LUCIA – Tourism officials from fourteen Caribbean countries will participate in a three-day workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Tourism Industry beginning Monday, September 14, in Castries, Saint Lucia.

The workshop, hosted by the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI) of the Organization of American States, is part of a wider CSR initiative by the OAS with support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) and the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT).

The objectives of the workshop are to create awareness of CSR and its relevance to the Caribbean tourism industry, to build the capacity of public sector representatives in the tourism industry to support and promote CSR in the private sector, to build the capacity of tourism practitioners in the Caribbean to engage in CSR activities and integrate these into their operations and to provide tools/resources to enable implementation of CSR initiatives in the Caribbean Tourism Industry.

Interactive modules will explore the principles and concepts of CSR, stakeholder engagement, CSR as it relates to different organizational contexts, the supply chain and tourism standards and guidelines, and develop models for incorporating CSR in the regional tourism industry.

Hugh Riley, Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization will be the workshop’s keynote speaker. Other presenters include Cletus Springer, Director of the Department of Sustainable Tourism at the OAS; Mr. Nigel Mitchell, Director St. Lucia Tourism Development Program; and McHale Andrew, Executive Vice President of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association.