The TCI Tourist Board, on Monday, November 7, officially kicked off Tourism Environmental Awareness Month (TEAM) with a press conference held at its Providenciales office.
“We join our regional counterparts in observance of Caribbean Tourism Month, and we encourage all of our communities and local stakeholders to get involved by attending the events hosted this month”, urged TCI Tourist Board’s Training Manager and Coordinator of TEAM, Blythe Clare, who opened the conference.
“It is important for us to create awareness amongst our people about the significance of tourism and attracting positive media coverage about our destination. We also seek to educate our youth about tourism and the multitude of careers available to them in the industry”, Clare added.
Throughout the Caribbean, November is celebrated as Caribbean Tourism Month, but in the Turks and Caicos Islands, it is celebrated with a particular focus on the environment – thus the name, Tourism Environmental Awareness Month. One of the events that the TCI Tourist Board will be supporting is the Turks and Caicos International Film Festival, which has an ever-present theme of oceans and the environment.
“We are ecstatic that the Film Festival and its Youth Expo Day are taking place during Tourism Environmental Awareness Month, as they further emphasize the importance of tourism, media, and the environment – and how all three intersect”, said TCI Tourist Board’s Senior Public Relations Officer, Gabriel Saunders.
“Youth Expo Day will be filled with engaging presentations centered around environmental awareness and will provide our youth with an opportunity for engaging hands-on learning with entities and people, such as Sharks4Kids, the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund, and Armen Adamjan – who many know by his TikTok and Instagram handle, ‘Creative Explained’, added Saunders.
The full calendar of events for TEAM is as follows:
Monday, November 7: TEAM Press Conference
Thursday, November 10: School Visits + Hello Tourist Program in South Caicos
Friday, November 11 – Sunday, November 13: Turks and Caicos International Film Festival
Saturday, November 12 – Tourism and Culture Day in Salt Cay
Monday, November 14: School Visit at Clement Howell High School
Monday, November 14 – Friday, November 18: Hello Tourist Program in Providenciales
Thursday, November 17: Fish Fry at the Lester Williams Park at 6:00 PM in Grand Turk
Friday, November 18: Tourism Career Fair at Dillon Hall from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM in Grand Turk
Tuesday, November 22: Department of Environment and Coastal Resources’ (DECR’s) Providenciales School Visits
Wednesday, November 23: School Visits and Fish Fry in North Caicos and Middle Caicos
Thursday, November 24: DECR’s Providenciales School Visits (cont.)
Tuesday, November 29: TCI Community College Open House with Tourism Students.
This year, the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board is celebrating the month under a previously-used theme – ‘Rediscovering the Turks and Caicos Islands’. It was explained that the past few years’ unprecedented events provided an opportunity to reset and reflect on tourism in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Now, as there is a transition back to normalcy, it is time to ‘rediscover the Turks and Caicos Islands.’
“This month, we encourage everyone to ‘rediscover the Turks and Caicos Islands’. Experience our country in ways that you have not as yet, or in ways that you have not in a while”, said Acting Director of Tourism, Mary Lightbourne.
“2022 has been an incredible year for us and Tourism Environmental Awareness Month provides us all with the perfect opportunity to intentionally reset and ‘rediscover the Turks and Caicos Islands’, so that we can all even better develop and promote our ‘beautiful by nature’ country”, Lightbourne added.