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Introduction
The Department of Management Studies, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, Jamaica hosted the Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Trends (WHATT) roundtable discussion, on 8 January 2003.
Professor Anthony Clayton, the Alcan Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development at UWI, chaired the roundtable and moderated the discussions.
Professor Lynn C. Harrison from the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Ryerson University, Canada (currently spending her sabbatical leave at UWI) was the discussant and recorder.
The participants, from a total of eight countries, were chosen for their seniority, experience and expertise. They comprised six industry participants, representing five sub-sectors of the hospitality and tourism sector, and six academic participants representing four universities.
The industry participants were:
- Eldon Bremner, MHCIMA, General Manager, Jamaica Pegasus Hotel and Chairman HCIMA - Jamaica;
- Robert Stephens, President, Pragma Consultants Ltd and Managing Director, Port Royal Development Ltd, Jamaica;
- Simone McCulloch, Physical Planner, National Environmental and Planning Agency, Jamaica;
- Joy Douglas, Urban and Regional Planning Consultant;
- Carolyn Hayle, Senior Programme Officer, UWI and former Director of Tourism Product Development Company, Jamaica; and
- Antonio Fernandes MHCIMA, Manager, Alpha Food Services, UK.
The other academic participants were:
- Dr Eric Sandelands, Dean, Canadian School of Management and Professor, University of Action Learning at Boulder, Colorado, USA;
- Dr Godfrey Pratt, Co-Director, Hospitality Management Program, Morgan State University, USA;
- Michael J. Flagg, FHCIMA, Senior Lecturer, London Metropolitan University, UK;
- Dr Hopeton Dunn, Senior Lecturer, UWI;
- Dr Hilton McDavid, Lecturer, UWI; and
- Dr Chandi Jayawardena, FHCIMA, Academic Director, MSc in Tourism and Hospitality Management, UWI.
The theme for the discussion was "Sustainable Tourism Development: The Role of Researchers in the Caribbean". The regional team leader introduced the concept of WHATT (Jayawardena, 2003), and identified the goal of the WHATT roundtable discussions as being to:
... improve the dialogue between academics and practitioners and to make research more relevant to industry needs.
Defining sustainable tourism development
The discussant presented summarized versions of some of the main definitions of sustainable tourism development. For example, according to the WCED (1987), sustainable development:
... implies meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Among the critical objectives for...