A group of young people from the Caribbean are presently being taught the rudiments of preserving and developing natural and cultural heritage sites under a UNESCO-sponsored project geared at generating income and reducing poverty in the region.<\/P><\/p>\n
Director of UNESCO’s office for the Caribbean, Helene-Marie Gosselin explained that the aim of the project was to have these youngsters develop various sites into centres of internal or international tourism.<\/P><\/p>\n
In addition to the training, Gosselin said the participants would also be provided with computers, printers, digital cameras and websites so they can advertise their services to the tourist industry.<\/P><\/p>\n
Gosselin added that through the provision of training and the equipment, UNESCO would ensure that these projects are financially sustainable, while preparing participants to become more independent.<\/P><\/p>\n
The project dubbed, ‘Youth Poverty Alleviation through Tourism and Heritage’, was launched on January 15.<\/P><\/p>\n
Gosselin said Jamaica was chosen as the site of the project’s launch because of the government’s strong political commitment to projects such as these.<\/P><\/p>\n
“There is a strong political commitment in Jamaica to develop heritage and community tourism and without this commitment, it is sometimes difficult to implement and develop such a project,” the director said.<\/P><\/p>\n
She added that other aspects of Jamaica’s history, such as its heritage and being a major tourist destination, also influenced UNESCO’s decision to have Jamaica act as the springboard for the project in the Caribbean.<\/P><\/p>\n
As part of the project, youth leaders from five Caribbean countries visited Jamaica on December 17 and toured the Hollywell recreational area.<\/P><\/p>\n
During the tour, the youngsters from Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines were trained in tour guiding and how to maintain natural and historic trails.<\/P><\/p>\n
Hollywell is located in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park.<\/P><\/p>\n
Gosselin expressed the hope that tourism- based private sector companies, such as hotels and the airline industry, will eventually support and participate in the project.<\/P><\/p>\n
Minister of Industry and Tourism Aloun N’dombet Assamba was asked by UNESCO to be the patron of the project.<\/P><\/p>\n
The Jamaica Observer<\/B><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The project dubbed, ‘Youth Poverty Alleviation through Tourism and Heritage’, was launched on January 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240788,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240296\/revisions\/240788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}