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Senators, Officials Spar Over Tourism Training

Everyone in the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Chamber Wednesday afternoon was firmly in favor of creating a training program in lodging, food service and tourism that would prepare V.I. youth for careers in the territory’s number one industry.
But there was a wide gap between the senators who were hoping to provide a training center for such a program and the officials who would actually develop and run it.
The Senate Committee on Economic Development, Energy & Technology heard testimony on a bill by Sen. Michael Thurland suggesting – though not specifically requiring – that the Kings Alley Hotel in Christiansted, which is owned by the V.I. government, become a training center for students hoping to enter the tourism industry. The bill authorizes the Public Finance Authority (PFA), which manages the hotel, to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the University of the Virgin Islands and the Department of Education’s Career and Technical Training Center at the St. Croix Educational Complex concerning the management and operations of the hotel.
While UVI President David Hall, and Education Commissioner LaVerne Terry both support tourism training, they were reluctant to commit to such a program.
Hall, who is in his first year at the helm of UVI, has been pushing since he arrived to create a bachelor’s degree program in tourism. But he is not ready to commit to a tool for the program when he doesn’t yet know what the program will look like.
Similarly, Terry said CTEC used to have a program, and they are planning to reinstitute it. But she was unwilling commit to using the hotel without first planning the program.
There are also concerns that the Kings Alley Hotel is not an appropriate venue for such a training program. It’s a small hotel, only 21 rooms, with a small staff. It lacks a restaurant, and its reservation system is manual, whereas in today’s tourism world students need to learn how to use computerized reservation systems, said Julito Francis, director of business and financial management for the PFA.
“I’m in agreement with the need for tourism training,” Francis said. “But I don’t believe it’s an adequate environment.”
Hall and Terry agreed that one benefit of the bill was that it redirected their thinking, spurring the two institutions to work together to create a “seamless pathway” towards tourism education. Instead of going “full-speed ahead on the higher education level,” as Hall said, university officials are now consulting with the high schools. They envision a program in which students entering a tourism career path in high school will be able to pursue it all the way through college.
“The legislation has encouraged a collaboration that otherwise might not have occurred,” Hall said.
The senators seemed exasperated that the agency officials weren’t jumping at the chance to set up a training program as suggested by the bill.
“If not this, then what?” Sen. Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly said. “There’s no sense of urgency, as if it’s impossible to make a change tomorrow.”
Hall countered that if he could, he’d start the bachelor’s program this fall. But said it’s not enough to start, you have to start the right thing. He did say, however, that he thought UVI might have the program in place as early as the fall of 2011.
Sen. Usie Richards pointed out that the practical effect of the bill is minimal. The agencies involved already have authority to plan together on how best to implement training in the lodging, restaurant and tourism industries.
Passage of the bill, he said, didn’t change that one way or the other. And the bill doesn’t require them to follow any particular course of action, although it does point specifically at the King’s Alley Hotel as a possible piece of the puzzle.
What passage does do, the senators said, is put the Senate on record as supporting the ongoing efforts, adding their weight to the growing momentum for creating such a training program.
By a 5-0 vote, the panel approved the measure and moved it on to the Senate Rules Committee. Voting in favor were Sens. Michael Thurland, Craig Barshinger, Neville James, Shawn-Michael Malone and Rivera-O’Reilly. Absent were Sens. Louis Patrick Hill and Sammuel Sanes.

In other action, the committee, by identical 5-0 votes:
• Passed on to the rules committee a resolution praising aviation pioneer Gen. Charles Blair, and naming the St. Thomas seaplane terminal after him.
• Approved a bill by Sen. Malone to amend the rules affecting enterprise zones, giving economic planners more tools with which to try to redevelop areas of Frederiksted, Christiansted and Charlotte Amalie. The bill extends tax breaks and other economic benefits, and makes them available to individuals, not just businesses. According to Nadine Marchena Kean, director of the Economic Development Commission’s Enterprise Zone Committee, it is the first amendment of the program since it was created in 1999.
Voting in favor of both issues were Sens. Thurland, Barshinger, James, Malone and Rivera-O’Reilly. Absent were Sens. Louis Patrick Hill and Sammuel Sanes.

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