Capacity building on sustainable tourism strategies for “The Industrial Heritage of Barbados: The Story of Sugar and Rum”

A capacity-building national workshop on Safeguarding Heritage in the Caribbean through Developing a Sustainable Tourism Strategy for “The Industrial Heritage of Barbados: The Story of Sugar and Rum” took place online from 27 to 29 October 2020.

The workshop aims: to strengthen the capacities of site managers and other key stakeholders for planning and managing sustainable tourism at heritage sites in Barbados; and to enhance broad stakeholder involvement in planning, development and management of sustainable tourism that follows a destination approach to heritage conservation and focuses on empowering local communities, thorough the development of a sustainable tourism strategy in view of the government of Barbados preparing a nomination file on “The Industrial Heritage of Barbados: The Story of Sugar and Rum” which is on the tentative list of Barbados.

The workshop brought 55 participants together, including site managers, government officials, academics, local communities. High-level politicians, the private and public sector and representatives from the academia participated at the opening of this workshop on 27 October. Remarks were delivered by Senator the Honorable Lisa Cummins, Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Mr. Shin Ogawa, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Japan in Barbados, Dr. Henderson Carter, Head, Department of History and Philosophy, The University of the West Indies, and Ms. Saadia Sanchez, Director and Representative, UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean. 

Topics discussed during the three-day Workshop included destination management, Barbados’ tourism and heritage, presentation of properties and its challenges by site managers, potential Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) as well as the impact of natural hazards and pandemics on heritage. Then interactive discussions, including exercises on SWOT analysis and the way forward were followed. The participants were enthusiastic and engaged throughout the workshop. It was appreciated as the workshop provided a platform both tourism and heritage stakeholders to meet and discuss. It was also very good for connection between researchers and site managers to exchange ideas. The follow-up activities will be carried out in coming months towards the development of the sustainable tourism strategy for “The Industrial Heritage of Barbados: The Story of Sugar and Rum”.

The workshop is financially supported by the Japanese Funds-in-Trust within the framework of “SIDS Capacity Building Project: Safeguarding Heritage in the Caribbean through Developing Sustainable Tourism Strategies” project.