Minister pledges U–First backing

Addressing the first meeting of the U-First committee for 2004, the Minister for Tourism and Transport Friday February 13 pledged his ministry's support to this year's theme of "Responsible Tourism."

"I would like to assure you of the commitment and the support of my ministry, we will do as much as we can to facilitate and work alongside you, so we can achieve our goals," Minister Joseph Belmont told the U–First committee, at their new year meeting at the ICCS.

After commending Mr John Stravens for agreeing to serve as U–First Chairman for another year, and thanking both returning members and new appointees to the committee for their work, the Minister said that the tourism industry must retain its competitiveness.

"Responsible tourism is a theme that everyone in the country can do a little bit to promote," said the new Minister for Tourism and Transport, adding that this has become increasingly important given the difficulties the industry currently faces.

As a new comer to the Tourism portfolio, Minister Belmont has spent the period since his appointment to the ministry attending meetings with a variety of players in the tourism industry, in order, he said, "to get the feel of the industry, to find out where we are and also to find out where we can work together and to find solutions to our problems."

The Minister said that the ongoing U–first programme has succeeded in raising awareness, throughout the country, both in the tourism industry and in the rest of society, of the importance of tourism and of the right service attitude.

He said that this has generated an improvement which has done a lot to keep our visitors happy, but warned that, "in view of the international circumstances we will have to carry on further with our efforts in service standards to ensure that visitors want to come back."

The meeting was attended by a variety of tourism players, from the U–First programme, Ministry of Tourism and Transport and the private sector.

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