From Caribbean News Now

GINGERLAND, Nevis — The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission’s tourism desk is continuing its series of regional community based tourism development exercises to the district of Gingerland in Nevis, the sister island of the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis.

The OECS Commission said this event from June 27 to 30, 2016, will deliver training, advisory support and technical assistance to Youth Path Nevis Inc. in developing human resource capacity and a viable and appealing community-based tourism product.

The Gingerland community is named after the valuable ginger crop that grew there. This parish, which supplies most of Nevis with fresh fruits and vegetables, is situated in a region that has high regard for tourism and is seeking to capitalise on opportunities in tourism towards accomplishing positive outcomes such as a reduction in youth unemployment in Nevis.

Tourism education officer Vanessa Webb said the support of the OECS Commission has boosted efforts to rehabilitate the Gingerland Public Market as a cultural heritage site by partnering with Youth Path Nevis Inc.

“One of the ideas is to establish business labs on the site where young people especially the unemployed can get seed grants to set up creative businesses at the public market and we are hoping that this workshop will help us to move forward. It is a dream in that we have in Gingerland to help our young people become entrepreneurs in tourism. So this intervention by the OECS Commission through its OECS community based tourism development programme is very timely and we are very thankful,” she said.

The four day exercise will include a site visit and self assessment of Gingerland’s community based tourism products to help ensure a better understanding of their potential viability with a view towards sustainable market access.

The OECS community based tourism workshop in Gingerland will also update the participants on marketing strategies including the use of social media for promoting their community-based products.

The OECS Commission expects the participants to understand the basics of formulating a marketing plan, including working up a profitable pricing structure which takes into consideration gross and net rates, fixed and variable costs, commissions and implications of VAT.

The OECS Commission’s tourism desk believes that through this community based tourism exercise in Gingerland, participants will be better poised to host visitors and understand and interpret the value of personal/family/community oral and written histories as they engage foreign and national visitors.

The OECS Commission added that participants in the community based tourism workshop in Gingerland will discuss strategies for minimizing the potential bottlenecks and barriers, in promoting their community based tourism products. The 10th EDF is supporting the activity.

IMAGE: Participants in the OECS community based tourism development exercise in Gingerland, Nevis

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Nevis-benefits-from-OECS-community-based-tourism-development-exercise-30904.html