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PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – With a view towards World Tourism Day, the St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA), the largest private business representative on the island, during its Annual General Meeting last Thursday addressed the theme of this year's World Tourism Day, Tourism & Community Development.

Both speakers of the night addressed the need to improve and utilize our talent, our human capital, and our communities; focusing on the ability of tourism to empower people and provide them with skills to achieve change in their local communities.

President of the SHTA, Mrs. Eveline Henriquez-Dijkhoffz, in her message to the members stressed the need to A.C.T. We need to ACE the test through sustained fiscal discipline and regain investors' trust in our economy.

Through this we can CREATE an enabling environment with the Government as the ultimate facilitator, through the reduction of bureaucracy, flexibilization of the labor market, reducing the cost-of-doing business and creating a tax system that is fair and broad-based and results in a lower overall tax-burden.

We will THRIVE as a society by ensuring sustainable economic growth through human capital development, leading to a better quality of life for our Community.

Keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Ryan Peterson from the University of Aruba, in his presentation "Transcending the Tides, Thriving on Talent", started by pointing out that St. Maarten has the highest tourism density in the world, we rank number 1 in tourism penetration over the last 5 years, the highest in rooms per square km, percentage of GDP derived from tourism expenditure, visitors per resident, persons employed in tourism, and similar parameters. Similar to other islands in the Caribbean, we have seen our productivity decrease and our profit margins drop.

The key for the future of any country, but most for especially a service-based economy lies in the talent, skills and capacity of its people.

For the individual, the communities, as well as for the country as a whole, investing in human capital is critical, even more so in the context of sustainable economic growth.

Unfortunately, the growth of SXM's tourism has not gone hand in hand with human resources development and improved labor qualification.

Looking at the curriculum offered by most secondary and tertiary educational institutions, especially in those that are tourism related, raises the question how well is our education connected to the realities, responsibilities and resilience of 21st century tourism? There seems to be a growing imbalance between the core curricula and the demands of the business and private sector.

Our tourism education should focus on the capacity to lead, it should offer value-based principals for our tourism leaders to become stewards of sustainability, instilling a sense of care and passion, offering meaningful and motivational experiences thereby engaging students.

Providing service is not something that is just learned between four walls, students need to experience it for themselves, go out in the field, the real world, be engaged, rich learning happens outside of the classroom.

The timing of World Tourism Day is particularly appropriate in that it comes at the end of the high season in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere, when tourism is on the minds of millions of people worldwide.

Although this is a one day celebration around the world, for our economy it should be a constant reminder for all that without tourism there would not be a St. Maarten as we know it. We need to look at the bigger picture, we are not just competing internally, but also regionally and globally.

The SHTA is dedicated to bringing quality to all aspects of life on St. Maarten by promoting sustainable development for its members in cooperation with the social partners and the creation of a fair marketplace.

For more information please contact our offices at 542-0108 or visit our website at www.shta.com.