Government Declares May Tourism Awareness Month

The Government of Dominica through the Discover Dominica Authority and The Dominica Hotel & Tourism Association has declared May 2012 as Tourism Awareness Month.

This is all in an effort to increase the awareness of Dominica’s tourism product and hospitality industry.

Dominica’s Director of Tourism, Colin Piper says during the month of May, nationals will be exposed to the economic, cultural and social contributions that tourism brings to the island.

“Tourism Awareness Month every year has three or four objectives. The aim is to inform, to educate, to entertain and to promote about all things tourism related.  We use that as an opportunity to really be inwardly focused and to make all Dominican aware of what the tourism product is, how they can be engaged in it and what the benefits are to them.”

Tourism awareness month will be observed under the theme, “Tourism is everybody’s business, let’s play our part.”

The tourism director says the month of activities will kick off with the annual tourism industry recognition awards ceremony scheduled where eight awards will be presented to various individuals and groups for their outstanding contributions towards the tourism sector during the past year.

Other activities planned for the month will include the tourism youth congress, Roseau paint-a-thon, Jazz n’ Creole, a Dominica Hotel & Tourism Association cocktail party and hike fest.

Piper says this year the plan is to host a number of radio and television programs informing the public of the importance of tourism.

“We are also going to be doing some radio quizzes where we try to inform people about the tourism product through questionnaires, and giving away some prizes.  Generally every day we want there to be something on the radio or on the TV about tourism so that people recognize, and it brings tourism to the forefront.  We’re also going to be doing television and radio programs with different guests speaking on matters of tourism.”

This year the Discover Dominica Authority will collaborate with the Dominica Solid Waste Management Corporation with its three R’s campaign to emphasize the need for the public to be conscious of indiscriminate littering within the city of Roseau and by extension the entire country.