The Regional Tourism & Health (THP) Programme
Link: https://carpha.org/What-We-Do/THP/Background
GOAL : To Improve the health, safety, quality and sustainability of the Caribbean tourism industry and thereby contribute to the industry being more competitive, sustainable & profitable
(vision for sustainable Caribbean development)
Strategy : Integrated Health, Safety and Environment management approach of combining training, surveillance, monitoring and response, standards implementation and research to address the critical link between health and tourism
- Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) in partnership with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) agreed to establish a Regional Tourism and Health Programme in January, 2014
- Approved by CARPHA (Sept 2013) & CTO’s Board (Jan 2014)
- Launch, Awareness and Discussion Workshop, Aruba, May 2014
- CTO, CHTA and CARPHA MOU signed in June 2014, New York
- Countries letters of commitment (7), April 2014 & April 2015
- Partnerships :CDC VSP, CLIA, Travelers Health, PAHO, CDC, PHAC
- Resource Mobilization, Awareness Raising, Program Development
Objectives
- Reduce illness in tourism and thereby promote increase visitor arrivals
- To build a healthier, safer, better quality and more environmental friendly tourism industry – lead to more sustainable tourism.
- To implement food & environmental safety, training. certification
- To provide timely alert of health, environmental and social events, to support health monitoring efforts and stimulate a rapid and coordinated response
- To promote a healthy workforce & reduce avoidable health costs
- To increase awareness and promote mutual understanding and collaboration between tourism and health stakeholders to address tourism & health as a joint priority
- To develop partnerships for sustainability of tourism
What has been done
- Protocols & partnerships for Early Warning and Response (hotels and cruise ships )
- Heads of Govt : CARPHA: Regional coordinator for PH events : Chik, Ebola
- Regional consultations – Chikungunya (March 2015); Regional food safety and early warning and response (May 2015): CTO, CLIA, CHTA; Regional Coordinating Mechanism for Ebola (RCME): June 2015)
- Public health Information and prevention guidelines (www.carpha.org)
- Developed Food and Environmental Safety Assessment Training & Certification
- Collating international and regional health, Safety & Environmental Standards
- Health and Safety in the Tourism Workplace survey
- Partnerships : CDC, CLIA, FTO, PHAC
- Funding : IDB, country
- Started : Barbados, TCI, Jamaica
National partners:
Ministries of Health | Ministries of Tourism | Ministries of Environment | Ministries of National Security
Regional public health partners:
CARICOM | CDEMA | CCCCC | IMPACS
International public health partners:
CLIA | CDC | PAHO/WHO | PHAC | Public Health England | UN-related agencies | Red Cross/Crescent
Other related partners:
UNWTO (World Tourism Organization)