BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: Richard Sealy, Minister of Tourism, and Dr David Estwick, Minister of Health, National Insurance and Social Security, will be the featured speakers at an Exporting Services to Canada Seminar and Health and Wellness Tourism Strategy Session in Barbados on March 31st and April 1st respectively.

The event is jointly organised by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) and Trade Facilitation Office Canada (TFO Canada).

Health tourism is thriving in Europe, Asia and the Pacific Region. Canada and the United States are also now focusing on the advantages of including health tourism options in their health services offerings.

The Caribbean is ideally suited to service the North American market given its geographic proximity, direct flights, common language and its sun, sand and sea which all contribute to the region’s attractiveness as a primary destination for health tourism.

The challenge is can the region provide world-class health tourism operations that offer consistent quality care and service and also compete with medical tourism destinations such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand?

This question and many others will be discussed during the three-day event, by medical tourism experts from Canada and Malaysia and representatives from eleven (11) CARICOM countries, the Dominican Republic and Cuba who will all provide their perspectives on successful building of the health and wellness tourism industry, the forging of collaborative partnerships and the strategic development of the sector.

As a follow up to this event, it is proposed that a delegation of Canadian organisations will visit two or three countries in the region during May, to meet with services providers and future business partners.

According to Caribbean Export’s Executive Director Philip Williams, “The timing of this series of events is propitious since the region and Canada are strengthening ties and the governments are discussing the establishment of a free trade agreement.”

He noted, “Now is the time for service firms to explore concrete business opportunities and for Business Support Organisations (BSOs) to develop service sector strategies to facilitate two-way trade between Canada and the region”.

In May 2007, Caribbean Export and TFO Canada signed a Cooperation Agreement to strengthen economic ties between the Caribbean Region and Canada. The programme, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency is focussed on four key areas: trade in services, investment attraction, gift and crafts sector, and the development of a web-based trade information system.