Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training in the Caribbean

Citation

Ingram, H. (2003), "Tourism and Hospitality Education and Training in the Caribbean", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 199-199. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm.2003.15.3.199.1

It is easy to recognize the internationality of the hospitality and tourism sectors, but more difficult to be aware of the richness, complexity and diversity of the product offerings and education in the Caribbean region. This is compounded by the scarcity of literature on this subject. This book, however, gives a series of case study snapshots providing an interesting mosaic of training needs and tourism which both informs and illuminates. The editor, Chandana Jayawardena, has sourced chapter input from an impressive range of academics, consultants, tourism consultants and operators, many of who are former students of the University of the West Indies (UWI). This may seem somewhat insular, but it reflects a realistic blend of the academic and practical while emphasizing the central role of the university in influencing tourism and educational development. These points are emphasized by the inclusion of a wide range of preliminary “messages” from senior figures which outline the context. For example, Professor the Honourable Rex Nettleford (Vice‐Chancellor of UWI) declares in the Foreword that the region “is no longer the backwater of ‘primitive in innocence’, but a new Caribbean in all its complexity”. The book is divided into three sections, each of eight chapters. The first section gives a series of institutional and special project case studies which give the historical background and context to tourism and hospitality education in the Caribbean. These chapters range from developing training to graduate and postgraduate courses, especially at UWI. The final chapter of this section, written by Kwame Charles addressed the future human resource development needs of Caribbean tourism. Section two offers country case studies which show the diversity of contexts in the West Indies. The countries include Bahamas, Belize, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands. Such names conjure images of exotic locations, but also show the universality of tourism and hospitality education problems, notably in reconciling demand and supply.

The third section considers present and future challenges, including customer relations, customizing training, issues in smaller hotels and academic research. It culminates in a final chapter by Carolyn Hayle, which uses a gap analysis approach to suggest a new way forward for Caribbean tourism and hospitality human resource development. The editor has done well to patch together this complexity and diversity in such a coherent way from such an eclectic selection of contributors. This adds up to a rich and definitive record of tourism and hospitality issues which both addresses a gap in the literature and lays the groundwork for the future in the Caribbean.