(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) In the wake of calls to harness the resources of sports for development, the CARICOM Council on Human and Social Development (COHSOD) at their 22nd Meeting in Georgetown, last week, agreed to establish a Regional Task Force on Sports Tourism to develop a strategy for harnessing the Region’s potential in sports.

The COHSOD, which focused on Youth Sports and Culture, reviewed evidence to support the claim that Sport Tourism could yield significant social and economic gains for the Region.

The Meeting which was attended by ten Ministers, accompanying strong delegations, and representatives from relevant regional and international agencies took careful note that with the sports industry accounting for approximately 2.5% of world trade, the Caribbean had not harnessed its own potential in this multi-billion dollar industry.

Local athletic championships and other sporting events potentially shore up visitor arrivals to many CARICOM countries, annually. In addition to the direct income from visitor arrivals to sporting events in the Caribbean, the economic potential of sports is also realised through the media value generated from sporting events; branding and endorsements through successful athletes; and collaborations in the cultural industries, as in the case of Jamaica’s bob sled team that was immortalised in the film Cool Runnings.

Earlier at the opening ceremony CARICOM Secretary-General, Irwin laRocque had made a similar telling point that “the time may have come, for us to set up a Regional Task Force to assess the situation of Caribbean sports with a view to fully harnessing its potential.” He had pointed to the nexus between the Community’s sports agenda and those of Youth and Culture, Health and Education, asserting that the Region could no longer underestimate the “added value” of Sport in fostering the social and economic development of people, families and communities.

The COHSOD discussed the matter thoroughly and mandated the CARICOM Secretariat to do the necessary preparatory work to establish the Task Force and identify national focal points to serve on it.

The youth, culture and sport ministers also acknowledged the need for Member States to develop national strategies in sports tourism and requested that the CARICOM Regional Strategic Framework on Sports Tourism which came out of a series of national and regional consultations be used to assist Member States in doing so.

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