By the Caribbean Journal staff

It’s time to insert “innovative and revolutionary thinking and to generate fresh energy” into the Caribbean’s tourism sector.

That was the call by Barbados Tourism Minister and current Caribbean Tourism Organization Chairman Richard Sealy at the CTO’s recent SOTIC conference in Curacao.

Sealy said that despite the sector’s 5.8 percent growth in the first half of 2015, the Caribbean “ought not to be complacent.”

“We ought not to be satisfied  because growth in the second quarter slowed somewhat to 4.9 per cent, compared to the six per cent growth experienced during the first quarter,” he said. “We ought not to be satisfied because, despite outpacing the rest of the world, our share of the world market is approximately 2.8 per cent. We cannot be satisfied because there is still so much left to be done in the areas of product development, the facilitation of travel to and through the Caribbean, taxes, partnerships, and innovation in order to be competitive.”

He said that the Caribbean cannot be satisfied until it becomes “the world’s most desirable year round, warm weather destination and until every citizen of the Caribbean is positioned to benefit from tourism.”