The Director-General of Tourism and Transport at the Ministry Francisco Martins has revealed that the Cabo Verde Government is preparing the country for more diverse, resilient, quality-based tourism with an ultimate aim of improving conditions of life of the Cape Verdeans.
Francisco Martins, representing the Minister of Tourism and Transport, Carlos Santos, made these considerations in the act of launching the formative activities of ′′ Response to the Covid-19 crisis and recovery of the Tourism sector in Cabo Verde ′′ under the programme Competitiveness Support in West Africa, taking place in Cape Verde, whose project is funded by the European Union worth 4.930.000 Euros and implemented by the UNDP and the Government of Cape Verde through the Ministry of Tourism and Transport.
The project adapted to provide the recovery of the tourism sector in Cabo Verde in the face of the crisis of the new Coronavirus pandemic takes account of the training of more than a thousand professionals linked to the Tourism sector, including tour guides, travel agency agents, drivers of taxis and also Border Police officers, airport staff and municipal guards and middle heads of small and medium-sized hotel units, including empowering key actors and increased competitiveness of Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises through quality certification and supply chain integration.
With the advent of the pandemic, the government has launched support for businesses, jobs, and families that are most vulnerable.
For the Director-General of Tourism and Transportation, with the advent of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, the world stopped and the fall of tourism was overwhelming overall between 60-80 %, according to the predictions of UNWTO. Cape Verde, whose economy has 25 % of tourism-based GDP, was and is being severely affected.
Referring that ′′ the pandemic, never before experienced by our generation, was in our country and in our homes “, Francisco Martins added that there was no time to waste, so we needed to act fast, so in the face of this one ‘ harsh reality ‘, the Government’s response was not kept waiting, and took all necessary steps and launched support for businesses, jobs and vulnerable families.
According to Francisco Martins, the Tourism Renaissance Plan of the Ministry of Tourism and Transport takes into account the valuation and training of more than two thousand five hundred professionals linked to the tourism sector, whose empowerment of sector professionals covers all sectors islands, and municipalities of the country.
The Director-General further stressed that national companies in the sector, in particular travel and tourism agencies, tour operators, tourist entertaining companies, will be targeted by specific empowerment and resource enhancement programmes with more initiatives are carried out by the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, aimed at fostering businesses from different sub-sectors downstream and upstream tourism to take advantage of the new business opportunities that have emerged as a result of this crisis.
Francisco Martins took the opportunity to announce and reaffirm that the Government, through the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, in partnership with EHTCV, the IEFP, the Pro-Company, the Directorate-General for Employment, Vocational Training and Professional Internships, among others, will be launching the emergency empowerment and self-employment programme for tourism employees in the next few days.
It will cover about 5000 more beneficiaries across the islands, with the aim of mitigating the negative effects generated by covid-19 Above all, supporting young people and their families in more inclusively resuming their activities and job creation linked to the tourism sector and subsectors and beyond.
