CTO Chairman Richard Skerritt
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
October 06, 2012 (SKNIS)
The 10th Annual Tourism Youth Congress which takes place in St. Kitts and Nevis on October 10, will be remembered for its bold and unprecedented move to engage students across the Federation in tourism-related matters.
Senior Youth Officer Kennedy Pemberton told SKNIS that the outgoing Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Richard Skerritt is passionate about the Youth Congress slated for the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank this year. The meeting, which features debates by 13 young people from CTO member territories, is organized as one of the activities of the CTO’s State of Industry Conference. The 14-17 year old representatives voice their opinions on the same matters that the heads of their Tourism Authorities address, but from a youth point of view.
However, CTO Chairman Skerritt ““ who is the Federal Minister responsible for tourism in St. Kitts and Nevis ““ wanted to expand the number of youth benefitting from the congress.
“So what we have done is extended invitations to every high school throughout the Federation … and that includes the CFBC (Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College),” Mr. Pemberton explained, speaking in his capacity as the chairman of the Youth Congress Planning Committee. “We did not just want them to come in and sit down for an hour and a half to listen to the discussion. What we really want is for them to actively get involved and to start thinking about tourism.”
At 1:30 p.m. an impromptu speaking session takes place. A topic will be proposed and a selected representative from each school will have the opportunity to make a one minute presentation on the subject. Assigned judges will consider the presentations and will award prizes to the top three speakers. That event will conclude at 2 p.m. when the congress delegates will debate the topics “˜Sports Tourism’ and “˜Using Social Media for Tourism.’
“After that is finished … we’ll have a tourism quiz. We’ve dubbed it the tourism-styled name, animal, place and thing,” Pemberton revealed. “So again we want to get our students there thinking about what animals, what places, the names of persons in St. Kitts and Nevis that they really think that tourists should know. What are some of the sites, do you know the names, do you know where they are, and do you know some of the animals that may be found at that site?”
The Youth Congress planning chair said that he was excited to have these new features added to the programme and commended Minister Skerritt for his commitment for expanding the impact of the CTO Conference has on the local population.