28th September 2021
Saint Lucia implementing a Tourism Health Programme
By Janelle Norville, GIS
Saint Lucia is one of four countries implementing a Tourism Health Programme devised by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).
The Tourism Health Programme, officially launched in Saint Lucia on Sep. 19, aims to strengthen the island’s capacity to respond to public health threats, improve the health, safety and security of locals and visitors. It also seeks to build tourism resilience, reputation, and economic sustainability.
CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control Dr. Lisa Indar explained that the implementation of the program will give Saint Lucia an added advantage of promoting surveillance and other measures for a healthier, safer tourism sector.
“We have a schedule of activities that actually started on Friday where we had high level meetings with the Ministers of Health and Tourism, Chief Medical Officer and the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority, where are coming together to develop a plan. The meeting that was held today is to really develop a plan of action; how we can best be able to have an implementation strategy specific for Saint Lucia that is for Saint Lucia’s capacity, for their tourism capacity, hotels, guest houses and yachts and so on. Following that this afternoon there will be a training on how to use the system and tomorrow to Thursday we will have advanced food safety training with certification which is an international certification. Then on Thursday afternoon we will have a meeting on improving cruise ship surveillance.”
Given Saint Lucia’s heavy reliance on the tourism industry as its main revenue earner, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belmar-George noted that as the number of arrivals increase so does the risk of introduction of diseases. She explained that the program will aid in boosting the country’s capacity to respond public health threats.
“This program, it strengthens the country’s capacity, to detect first of all in a timely manner any initial or early infections that may come in and also to be able to manage them in a very efficient way. So it really improves the health and safety of our people and also of the tourism sector as well so it makes it a lot safer. One of the very important aspects of the program is the training that is done at the level of the workers the officers and it includes both the accommodation sectors like the various hotels and also the added activities related to the tourism industry so the restaurants, the yachting, the cruise ship, all of those sectors will be a part of the program.”
As part of the Tourism Health Program CARPHA facilitated a re-sensitization of industry operators in the Tourism Health Information System (THiS) on Monday 20th September and a three-day Advanced Food Safety Training Certification Workshop on Tuesday 21st September – Thursday 23rd September, for environmental health officers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and a stakeholder consultation on cruise ship surveillance assessment.
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