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The Solomon Islands Government through the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is looking to help new graduates as potential entrepreneurs and to increase the level of innovation within the Tourism Industry by partnering with the University of the South Pacific to implement this initiative.
The initiative was launched in Honiara yesterday by the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Bartholomew Parapolo, to open the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Workshop which continues this week.
The first of its kind in the country, the Innovative and Entrepreneurship Training Workshop is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the University of the South Pacific (USP) that came into reality following a number of discussions between the two parties.
The Training workshop is designed to assist tourism graduates, new operators and existing operators increase their ability to be more creative and innovative in a very dynamic and competitive sector.
“The need for such training came about given the high number of tourism and hospitality graduates but limited job opportunities in the market place,” Minister Parapolo explained in his opening address.
The workshop is hoping to see an explosion of practical insights to those wishing to refresh their existing business and help new young entrepreneurs act on new tourism business ideas based on the current opportunities that exist in the sector.
“Innovation and entrepreneurship is very important in all sectors of the economy. It is especially vital for the tourism sector to grow through increase in new entrepreneurs”.
“More so, it is important amongst Resource owners as such approach will encourage their participation in the tourism and related sectors, which is crucial for economic growth, productivity gains and job creation,” Parapolo said.
The Minister believed that the contribution of entrepreneurs in the industry is crucial for the nation’s economic advancement through tourism – making the workshop relevant to encourage new entrepreneurs and existing tourism operators to develop innovative tourism business ideas and improve on existing businesses.
It is hoped that with this training, all participants will be able to assess the business opportunities and capitalize on them.
Minister Parapolo said work-shopping this is initiative to those involved is something he is confident will contribute towards expanding our tourism product based and enable business confidence in the sector, which should enhance our competitiveness internationally.
The Minister challenged participants to develop the ability to think creatively about developing tourism products and convert them into business undertakings while at the same time urged existing operators to be able to develop ideas to continuously improve their tourism services and products.
“With new tourism ideas, the ministry would be able to support such innovative ideas that would expand our product portfolios in the country. This would contribute to the growth of the sector, which is a key policy objective of the government,” the Minister said.
The Workshop ends this Friday 24th November.
(Source: Solomon Fresh Beat Online 21 November 2017)
