Importance of our Financial Industry for the development of tourism.
Willemstad (August 14, 2017) – On Friday, CHATA hosted its first Breakfast Meeting of 2017 at CHATA member Osteria Rosso. The Breakfast Meeting featured a presentation by Mr. Daniel Hodge, former Chairman of the Curaçao Bankers Association whom elaborated on the importance of banking for the development of the tourism industry on Curaçao.
Throughout this year CHATA has been voicing its concerns regarding several matters within the tourism industry that need urgent attention such as the restructuring of CTDF and a CEO for CTB. However, sustainable tourism development is dependent on many components both within and outside of the tourism sector such as a favorable investment climate and regulatory framework. For this reason, CHATA invited Mr. Daniel Hodge former Chiarman of the Curaçao Bankers Association to provide his insight on the role of banking and the development of our tourism sector.
According to Mr. Hodge, “Each and everyone on the island holds different but equally important tools to grow our industry”. The role of the banking sector is to finance solid initiatives to increase qualified capacity (i.e. rooms) on the island. Furthermore he emphasized that we must institutionalize the undertaking of tourism related research and the collaboration among the most relevant partners in order to identify where to target our best efforts in terms of service delivery, product attractiveness and combatting tourist related crime. Therefore, he suggests to install a common high-level task force among the Tourism Industry Stakeholders (TISH) to study the possibility of an effective Tourism Research and Finance Corporation (TRFC), in which all relevant parties could participate.
Over time, this would not only allow for the allocation of adequate tourism financing, but also increase our collective tourism related knowledge base. The end-objective of this effort should be to promote long term overall attractiveness and sustainability of the Curaçao tourism industry.
“Today we have started an interesting dialogue on the great necessity to involve banks in the development of our tourism product” states Miles Mercera, President & CEO of CHATA. “We must understand that the tourism industry will not grow if we do not invest in the sector and in this case our Product. Tourism projects such as quality hotel projects will not be realized if we continue to see tourism as a risky business. Tourism requires an out of the box approach, where investment, flexibility and creative thinking play a vital role. Therefor we are excited to continue this dialogue with other actors within the financial sector to explore the ideas brought forward by Mr. Daniel Hodge such as the Tourism Research and Finance Corporation”
CHATA will continue its efforts to involve all relevant stakeholders in development of the tourism industry and will organize similar sessions to explore new and out of the box ideas to further grow our tourism product. CHATA reminisces on yet another successful and informative meeting and extends its gratitude to its member and partner Maduro & Curiel’s Bank for sponsorship of this well attended Breakfast Meeting at Osteria Rosso. In partnership we move forward towards achieving a vibrant and sustainable tourism product.
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