Tourism plan still in the works, Premier insists

The government’s long-promised tourism plan for the territory remains under development, with proposals only now entering the evaluation stage, according to Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley.

The Premier said the administration had entered a new phase of the process after receiving submissions from interested parties in response to a request for proposals.

“Our request for proposals went out. The proposals have come in, and now we’re entering into the evaluation phase of the proposals,” Dr Wheatley stated on the Talking Points programme. 

He did not give a firm completion timeline but said the government was encouraged by the progress made so far. “I can’t tell you exactly when that particular phase will be completed, but we’re pleased that we’ve gotten now to a new stage and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he added. 

The update comes amid ongoing opposition criticism about delays in producing a comprehensive tourism strategy, despite tourism remaining one of the territory’s main economic pillars. The Premier acknowledged that work on sector-specific plans had taken longer than expected, citing competing priorities during his administration’s early tenure.

“The work of developing all of these plans has been somewhat delayed because we had so much focus on the governance reform, which represented its own type of plan,” Dr Wheatley said. 

He rejected claims that the government lacked an overarching development framework, pointing instead to the National Sustainable Development Plan, which he described as the foundation for all sectoral planning.

“It’s being said inaccurately that we don’t have a plan, but we were actually the first government to pass a National Sustainable Development Plan tied to the UN Development Goals,” Dr Wheatley stated. 

Several subsidiary strategies

According to the Premier, the tourism plan will be one of several subsidiary strategies emerging from that national framework. “That plan will spawn other plans. And one of those plans is a tourism plan. We need to have an infrastructure plan. We’ll have an agriculture plan. And these plans are all being worked on,” he said. 

Premier Wheatley stressed that the government’s planning approach was coordinated rather than ad hoc. “All of our planning within government, our budget, everything, our legislative agenda is tied back to that plan,” he stated. 

He also linked the tourism planning process to broader efforts to strengthen resilience and economic stability, noting that external shocks could have immediate consequences for the sector.

“What persons need to understand is we need to understand the geopolitical situation in the world because, you know, we are an island, but no man is an island,” Dr Wheatley said. 

The Premier did not outline specific policy measures for the tourism plan, limiting his comments to the current procurement and evaluation stage. He said further details would emerge once assessments were completed.