The UWI Open Campus Signs New MOU with Countrystyle Community Tourism Network

Office
of the Principal, Kingston, Jamaica.
Friday,
May 22, 2020 — The
University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus and the Countrystyle
Community Tourism Network (CCTN) signed a formal Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) to facilitate advancement in community tourism.
The agreement represents the second collaboration between both
organisations and was signed by the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal
of The UWI Open Campus, Dr Luz Longsworth, and the President of
Countrystyle Community Tourism Network (CCTN), Mrs Diana
McIntyre-Pike. Similar to the previous agreement, the collaboration
will be in effect for a period of two years with considerations for
renewal.

Given
the success of the previous partnership, it was envisioned that a
renewed agreement would again reap mutual benefits by facilitating
programmes aimed at realising the full potential of persons in the
community tourism industry. The partnership is also expected to
advance community tourism as both a recognized academic discipline
and an effective tool for holistic, equitable and sustainable
development. Both parties will work together to implement joint
programmes and projects that will focus on capacity building,
organisational development and technical assistance aimed at
harnessing experiences and resources.

In
emphasising the importance of this renewed partnership with CCTN, Dr
Longsworth indicated that “moreso now than ever as Jamaica and the
region struggles with rebuilding the tourism industry in the wake of
the COVID-19 Pandemic, this collaboration with CCTN is vital to
bringing together academia with our communities in foregrounding the
role of community tourism in this recovery”

Mrs
McIntyre-Pike in commenting on the great potential of the renewed
partnership stated, “Our Villages as Businesses members understand
how important mindset, leadership, collaboration, imagination and new
skills are to building community resilience. This has never been
truer than now during this pandemic. We will work together to make
this collaboration work around Jamaica and the wider Caribbean
through education and training for a diverse tourism experience.”

The
Open Campus and the CCTN will operationalise this agreement with the
offer of a Webinar Series themed Navigating
the Pandemic: Reinventing the Business of Tourism. This
series consist of three Webinars with the first scheduled to take
place on Thursday,
May 28, 2020
andentitled
Leading in Times of Chaos. Information
on this Webinar can be found at https://cutt.ly/cyQA4ro.The
Webinar Series will address how the businesses, individuals and
communities can deal with the pressures imposed by COVID-19 and the
changes it will bring in its wake.

-End-

Captions

Photo
1:
Dr Luz Longsworth, Pro
Vice-Chancellor and Principal, The UWI Open Campus

Photo
2:
Mrs Diana McIntyre-Pike, President, Countrystyle Community Tourism
Network

About
Countrystyle Community Network

Countrystyle’s
vision is to see communities as destinations and community tourism as
the vehicle for sustainable development and prosperity through its
Villages as Businesses programme with the support of the
International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Caribbean.
In a heavily tourism-dependent region in the world, every community
and citizen is a potential business partner to be trained in
hospitality skills, entrepreneurship, environmental awareness,
product development and marketing. But to become an effective
partner, every community and every citizen needs to understand how to
value their natural, cultural, heritage and human assets and add
value to them through conservation, creativity, education and
collaborative management.

The
Mission Statement for the Countrystyle Community Tourism
Network/Villages as Businesses (CCTN/VAB) is to support the
development of community tourism in Jamaica, the Caribbean and
internationally while educating all stakeholders of its importance to
the cause of peace, poverty alleviation and sustainable development
and to offer local and foreign visitors diverse ‘community
experience’ vacations and tours.

The
Academy for Community Tourism (ACT) is: “Develop future hospitality
leaders through education and practical training while fostering
goodwill and friendship.”

About
The UWI

For
over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has
provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider
world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in
Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally
respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five
campuses: Mona
in Jamaica, St.
Augustine
in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave
Hill
in Barbados, Five
Islands
in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust
globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with
universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa
including the State
University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and
Sustainable Development;
the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the
Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de
los Andes (UNIANDES); the UWI-China Institute of Information
Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African
and Diaspora Studies and the
Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of
Johannesburg (UJ).
The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and
postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering,
Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science &
Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.

As
the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost
objective is driving the growth and development of the regional
economy. The world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times
Higher Education,
has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for
2019, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean
for 2018 and 2019.The UWI has been the only Caribbean-based
university to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit
www.uwi.edu.

(Please
note that the proper name of the university is The University of the
West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)