The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

DIGITAL engagement by the tourism sector is “paramount” to the continued success of the industry, according to Rafique Symonette, chairman of the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC).

Speaking at the OAS Cybersecurity Symposium yesterday, Mr Symonette said many visitors arrive with the expectation vendors will accept digital payments and that business owners must be able to accommodate their requests to fully engage with them.

He said: “Getting us digital as the whole country is paramount for us to succeed. And I think without that we can’t engage in the commerce at the level that is expected right now from the international community.

“Gone are the days where we can transact vis a vis dollars, everything is now digital. If you go to the airport now, you’ll see that many tourists actually arrive without any cash on hand and look to jump in a taxi and they pull out their credit card.

“Unless we’re able to convert all those tourism entrepreneurs... to be fully digitally engaged, they won’t be able to engage with the customer.”

He said many local entrepreneurs do not understand the importance of cybersecurity and maintaining best practices, so ensuring the industry is engaged with stakeholders to keep up to date on current trends is important to the TDC.

He said: “Cybersecurity is a major part of what’s needed for tourism, especially for our businesses. What we found is that a lot of local tourism entrepreneurs don’t understand the importance of meeting that international standard.

“We want to basically learn about all the current cutting-edge trends so that we can make sure to be able to help our local entrepreneurs understand what they need to put in place.

“We think that it’s paramount that we do it in the right way and a secure way, which is why the cybersecurity projects are so important.”

Mr Symonette said the TDC is a “lifeline for tourism entrepreneurs” as many of them did not have the support that international players have access to. He noted the Tourism Development Cooperation Act allows the agency to use its “full teeth” to support local entrepreneurs.

He said: “The TDC Act was just approved July 1, which now allows us to be able to take full force to go after our main goals, which is actually to be what we call a lifeline for tourism entrepreneurs.

“For too long what we found is that tourism entrepreneurs, especially local ones, were always forced to actually take it on their own and find out solutions, while large international partners are provided with different concessions.

“So the TDC in many ways is supposed to be that solution to enact and make it possible for local entrepreneurs to participate viably within the sector. And this legislation allows us to actually use our full teeth to go after and support this space.”