The Impact of Climate Change on the Caribbean Tourism Industry Will Be Analyzed

The Impact of Climate Change on the Caribbean Tourism Industry Will Be Analyzed
Punta Cana, July 21 2015

A seminar to study the impact of climate change to which the Caribbean region is vulnerable and to propose the responses that the tourism industry should offer to address this problem will be held in the country with support from the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation and the Center of Responsible Tourism (CREST).

The event, to be held at The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club on July 22, 23 and 24, is called “Innovators Think Tank 2015” and it is based on the notion that the countries of the Caribbean are among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change.

Given this situation, the event organizers, tourism promoters in the coastal and marine areas, have undertaken the challenge of analyzing how to plan, build and operate the industry to reduce the negative impacts of global warming and the degradation of nature.

Martha Honey, CREST representative, said that “it will be a unique meeting of international professionals and experts from the tourism industry, who will have the responsibility of making an inventory-assessment of the current situation in the sector, and to recommend actions to address climate changes.”

In turn, the Director of the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation, Jake Kheel, said that the interactive debates that will take place on the first day of the conference, led by Roger-Mark Desouza, Director of Environment at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, will focus on the potential impact of climate change and mitigation strategies. Meanwhile, on the second day of the conference discussions will focus on coastal and marine issues, under the leadership of the same expert.

Kheel said that the “Punta Cana Group, through its Ecological Foundation, has been a pioneer in addressing a diversity of environmental challenges, and that it believes that climate change is another challenge to be faced through the implementation of innovative and creative techniques to adapt to and mitigate the impact of global changes.”

Some of the Group’s environmental initiatives are: a treatment system for recycling water, which is then used in the irrigation systems of golf courses and other green areas; the use of biomass to produce steam for an industrial laundry facility; and, the creation of one of the most important recycling centers in the country and the largest private ecological reserve in the country.

Also, the Coral Restoration program, an effort to protect the endangered Caribbean species of corals “Acropora cervicornis (Staghorn Coral)” and the “Acropora palmata (Elkhorn Coral),” in order to help prevent their extinction.

The aim of the Punta Cana Ecological Foundation is to expand these experiences to other areas of the country.