Photo: Twitter account of the British Airways.

By Frank Martin

Despite bad times caused by Covid-19 and risks that still exist, tourism finds answers under the stormy weather.

The Caribbean region for example has already embarked on the development of its crucial human resources for the regional tourism industry a sure path towards normalization.

It has just been announced that the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), an entity of CARICOM nations, has established an agreement with the Canadian e-learning material development company, Velsoft.

The  final goal of the treaty is to keep the region advanced in its virtual training and development program related to the leisure industry .

Velsoft, an important entity in its specialty, disclosed that it will host the Caribbean Tourism Institute, a campus described as online and developed by the Canadian firm.

Experts explained to TTC that it is an educational tool for the training and development of open online learning with a great immediate future.

The specific design for this new portal is to provide access. to training opportunities for those who work or aspire to work in the Caribbean tourism and hospitality sector.

According to its promotion, the Velsoft network offers the best training materials.

“This content can be easily opened in MS Word, Google Docs, WordPerfect or any other word processing program so that you can easily make the changes you need,”  a leaflet promises.

With CTO, the Canadian firm developed a bond to carry out “one of our key human resource development objectives of increasing access for Caribbean people to high-quality educational and training opportunities,” Secretary Neil Walters explained to the press. Acting General of the CTO.

Fighting the way out from pandemic.

For regional experts, the long “fight” of the world’s tourist destinations, including the Caribbean ones, against the epidemic for almost two years is not enough.

Recently emerging phenomena such as the modality called Omicron demonstrate this.

World tourism has declined dramatically, plunging the region’s gross domestic product by 58 percent last year.

Surveys on the matter remain alarming. According to a recent survey by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, a quarter of the more than 250 Caribbean tourism companies surveyed said they do not expect a full recovery until at least mid-2023.

Experts consulted consider that this still complex moment of recovery should not be defined as either optimistic or pessimistic.

Airlines such as British Airways, Jetsmart, Iberia, American Airline, Aeroflot, Sky and many others are returning to routes that were suspended during the health crisis and opening new ones.

The hotel industry and destinations are ready to return to the market and a good part of the countries with important tourism industries are reopening borders.

However, and even if it is not published every day, reasonable precautions are taken with a view to the almost complete recovery of the business.

The formula adopted by CTO with the Velfost company is an agreement to apply current recovery measures while opening the way for more initiatives.

Another eloquent example is that  Ömicron was only a secondary theme during the 25th International Tourism Fair of Latin America at the beginning of the month in Buenos Aires.

The big issues were others including the challenges of disparate border policies, as destinations remain hopeful that their summer season will arrive soon and with more opportunities than might be expected.

What it is really about it is that the universal wheel of tourism is already moving and what is really important is that its movement gradually becomes eternal again.