The Ministry of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries on Monday, Feb. 17, officially launched the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA).

The TSA is a standard statistical framework, and the main tool for the economic measurement of tourism. It provides credible data on the impact of tourism and the associated employment. It also provides Saint Lucia’s balance of payments and information on tourism human resource characteristics.

Minister for Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries Hon. Dominic Fedee indicated that the TSA is very important in the process of designing economic policies related to tourism development. The implementation of the TSA serves to increase and improve knowledge of tourism’s importance relative to overall economic activity to Saint Lucia; assist in the development of more efficient tourism policies and employment; and create awareness among those directly and indirectly involved in the tourism sector of its economic importance, and by extension its role in all industries involved in the production of goods and services demanded by visitors which includes the agriculture sector.

Chief Executive Officer of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, Noorani Azeez, highlighted the country’s dependence on the Tourism Sector, and indicated that information is key to making the right decisions so as to benefit not only the sector but the people of Saint Lucia.

The TSA was developed by the World Tourism Organization the Organization for Economic Co-opération and Development (OECD), the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) and the United Nations Statistics Division.