The Caribbean Tourism Group (CTO) has rolled out an bold three-year technique aimed toward reshaping the area’s tourism panorama. The Reimagine Plan 2025–2027, formally launched throughout Caribbean Week in New York final month, units a transparent course to raise the Caribbean as a worldwide frontrunner in sustainable tourism.
Introduced by CTO Secretary-Normal Dona Regis-Prosper, the plan additionally focuses on bettering inner techniques and driving tangible advantages for member states.
“The previous few years have examined the energy of our tourism trade like by no means earlier than,” mentioned Regis-Prosper in a launch video. “However in true Caribbean spirit, now we have tailored, rebuilt, and moved ahead. This renewed imaginative and prescient displays our collective aspirations for sustainable progress, larger resilience, and lasting prosperity.”
Structured round 5 core pillars — sustainable and regenerative tourism, tourism intelligence, advocacy, market competitiveness, and folks improvement — the Reimagine Plan goals to extend authorities and allied membership, strengthen tourism information infrastructure, increase coaching for marginalized teams, and improve service requirements throughout the area. A sixth concentrate on operational excellence will information inner reforms inside CTO.
On the launch occasion, Ian Gooding-Edghill, Barbados’ Minister of Tourism and Worldwide Transport and Chairman of the CTO Council of Ministers and Commissioners, emphasised that the Reimagine Plan is greater than a method — it’s a regional crucial. “The time is now. The change-makers are current. The visionaries are in movement,” he mentioned. “Allow us to reimagine tourism not merely as a sector, however as a car for empowerment, a platform for innovation, and a supply of dignity for our individuals.”
Latia Duncombe, Director Normal of Tourism for The Bahamas and a member of the CTO Reimagine Oversight Committee, referred to as the initiative “a name to motion,” stressing the significance of execution: “We can not afford to deal with this as simply one other framework … our potential to maneuver the needle relies on how nicely we translate imaginative and prescient to execution.”
The plan emerged from greater than two years of session, evaluation and collaboration. Committee co-chair Donovan White, Director of Tourism for Jamaica, mentioned the method has introduced new alignment throughout the area: “The final two and a half years really feel totally different …It seems like we’re lastly understanding that now we have to tug in a single course.”
Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism for the Cayman Islands, who chaired the CTO Board of Administrators through the first a part of the event of the plan, described it as a direct response to calls from member states for larger worth and relevance. “There was a recurring theme that we confronted as chair in 2022-2023: CTO wants so as to add worth … we heard the decision loud and clear.”
The initiative additionally displays a broader push for regional self-determination in an more and more aggressive international tourism market. Talking on the launch, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, highlighted the Caribbean’s distinctive vulnerabilities, untapped potential and resilience. “The Caribbean is essentially the most dependent area on planet Earth for tourism,” he mentioned. To totally harness that potential, Bartlett urged regional leaders to “harmonize insurance policies,” “put apart nationalism,” and “embrace regionalism.”
The plan will probably be overseen by the CTO Reimagine Committee, co-chaired by Director White and Andrea Franklin, Chairman of CTO’s Board of Administrators and CEO of Barbados Tourism Advertising Inc. It was developed in partnership with EY (beforehand Ernst & Younger) and supported by the Caribbean Tourism Institute.
“That is not a imaginative and prescient on paper,” mentioned Annette Mark, CEO of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority and a member of the oversight committee. “It’s an motion plan for progress.”
The Reimagine Plan was first launched internally and is now being rolled out throughout the area. The total plan will proceed to unfold over the approaching months, with stakeholder engagement, implementation assist, and efficiency monitoring already underway. For the CTO, this initiative alerts a brand new period — one rooted in function, constructed on partnership, and centered on outcomes.
