THIS WEEK IN EUROPE with David Jessop

As this is being written, six Caribbean tourism ministers are preparing to travel to London.

There, they will meet with the British government, the region's travel industry and aviation partners, and consult with the Caribbean diaspora and diplomats from other nations.

The issues they will be discussing relate to the Air Passenger Duty, the ticket tax that unfairly places the Caribbean in a higher tax band than the whole of the United States; British Government proposals to consider a successor arrangement in the form of a per-plane tax or duty; and an all-European Union proposal to introduce an additional environmental tax in 2012 through an aviation emissions licensing system.

However, the true significance of their visit, which will be led by the Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Antigua's Minister of Tourism, John Maginley, goes far beyond the region's specific and immediate concerns.

The ministers of tourism of Antigua, Grenada, Jamaica, Barbados, St Kitts-Nevis, and St Lucia, in many respects, will be following in the footsteps of delegations that came previously to Europe to argue that the region's sugar, banana, or rice industries should not be disadvantaged by changing European policy on trade and preference.

However, what sets this visit apart and makes it very different to those that went before is that it relates to the need to defend, not protect, the interests of a sector in which the Caribbean might realistically hope to sustain a long- term competitive advantage.

Like it or not - and some in the Caribbean do not - the Caribbean is tourism dependent.

Today, the industry employs directly and indirectly more than 1.9 million people, or 11 per cent of the region's workforce, with the figure rising in some nations such as Jamaica to as much as 25 per cent. The industry also accounts for 12.8 per cent of the Caribbean's economic activity, a figure that is growing year on year, and is already the most tourism-dependent region in the world

Despite this, as recently pointed out by Josef Forstmayr, the new president of the Caribbean Hotels and Tourism Association (CHTA), there is still insufficient awareness and understanding of the industry's economic contribution and how it permeates the depth and breadth of the general economy and overall fabric of Caribbean society.

Speaking at length about this in his first major public address, Forstmayr said that the region needs to continue to remind its people that the tourism business provides jobs not only in hotels, but in restaurants, for farmers and fishermen, for the seamstress, shopkeeper and manufacturers, to the deliveryman and trash collector.

The CHTA president linked this with the need to raise the level of consciousness about the importance of the youth.

"We must ensure that (all) can participate in the ownership and economic benefits of the industry," he said.

"Successful companies today are proactively and effectively managing their human resources. Having good talent and highly motivated staff working with our guests is very important. Every government should immediately undertake a full-scale public education campaign in schools. Every citizen needs to understand that whether or not he or she works directly in the tourism areas, every tourist's dollar brings economic and social benefits to every level of society."

His comments relate directly to why it is becoming imperative that the region's governments incorporate tourism issues into their policy dialogue on issues that range from the environment through crime to taxation.

If the region's industry does not remain competitive, does not obtain new investment, does not benefit from development transfers, does not have an environmental strategy that incorporates tourism, aviation and maritime policy, then the Caribbean economy as a whole will suffer.

Tourism policies

Already, nations like the United Kingdom are spelling out at the highest level tourism policies that place emphasis on the huge potential the industry has to create rapid economic growth.

They are also starting to look at the industry in a holistic manner; how, for instance, it relates to fiscal policy through approaches that actively seek to increase the number of domestic tourists staying at home to 50 per cent while actively promoting the UK as a destination for inbound travel.

Recently, Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron, delivered a very personal speech on tourism.

"For too long," he said, "tourism has been looked down on as a second-class service sector. That's just wrong. Tourism is a fiercely competitive market, requiring skills, talent, enterprise, and a government that backs (it). It is fundamental to the rebuilding and rebalancing of our economy. It's one of the best and fastest ways of generating the jobs we need so badly."

Tourism, he said, was Britain's third-highest export earner, accounting for a quarter of all jobs, and was helping rebalance the national economy. It encouraged pride in a country, provided a reason to vacation at home, and had to be made globally competitive.

All of which is why the tourism ministers' visit to the United Kingdom has a broader importance.

Being realistic, whatever form of aviation tax the UK chooses, it is likely year on year to levy increases and incorporate such income into its general revenue, adding whatever gains might come about from the EU emissions trading scheme when it is applied to flights in 2012.

This implies that the ministerial visit is the first shot in a much larger and longer battle relating to the way in which global equity might be achieved in environmental taxation.

It may be too early to say how this will play out, but for the Caribbean and all small island developing states that are low carbon emitters, defending tourism in the context of environmental taxation is an important first step towards broader exchanges in a global framework that may ultimately bring financial transfers that will assist Caribbean tourism and regional development.

David Jessop is director of the Caribbean Council. david.jessop@caribbean-council.org