The Turks and Caicos Islands Government as part of its ‘Contract with the People’ and ‘Citizen Empowerment Document’ has clearly outlined its vision for the Tourism Industry. This vision includes the development of a Destination Management Organization (DMO) and a Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA) to replace the current Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board structure. These changes in the organization and management of tourism in TCI aim to improve destination competitiveness and increase stakeholder synergy through the efficient marketing and management of the TCI Destination in close partnership with the private sector.

After a lengthy international tendering process the TCIG has selected Target Euro, an international tourism development consultancy firm based in Italy, to help transition the TCI Tourism Board and set up the various entities to manage tourism in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

This project has 3 key areas of intervention, the last two of which are overlapping.

• Definition of the DMO and TRA models: the development of a DMO model including the governance model, financial model, business model, staffing, roles and responsibilities etc., and the development of the roles and responsibilities of the TRA.
• Drafting legislation: the review of TCI tourism legislation and the identification of amendments or new legislation needed in TCI to accommodate the development of a DMO and then subsequent drafting of new legislation.
  
• Tourism Development Strategy: the development of a new tourism development strategy for TCI, covering all islands and tourism destinations, the identification of areas for product development, marketing plan and implementation plan etc.

The TCIG and the Target Euro team aim to develop a SMART DMO which encourages data collection and sharing among tourism stakeholders to allow them to make informed real time decisions and invests that will improve the overall TCI tourism ecosystem and increase tourist spending. This will be accomplished through a Learning Region approach, which brings stakeholders together in coherent information and cooperation networks, to monitor the sector’s performance and governance issues.

The Consultant’s team has activated a participatory approach with TCIG and all other public and private stakeholders connected with the tourism industry, so that the final input is the result of a joint effort and agreed by all those involved. On this basis, our technical approach will be developed on the following four methodological axes:

– Integration (in the tourism offer of all cultural and natural tourism assets)

– Participation (of all tourism stakeholders in the definition of the DMO and TRA models)

– Complementary (referring to the need to define a DMO / TRA management structure and a Tourism Development Strategy for TCI which are in line with the existing government development policies)

– Practical approach (starting from the current situation of the area´s tourism resources and human capacities and especially the TCI-TB organization)

In addition, the definition of the DMO and TRA models are “best practices based”. Target Euro team has examined the DMO / TRA models (organisation and finance) in other Overseas Territories, including Aruba, Bermuda, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, UK (Scotland) and Brazil. For the legal form, examples from USA, UK and Italy have been considered too.

The engagement of TCI tourism stakeholders is based on regular meetings with the DMO Advisory Committee (AC) and individual meetings with selected tourist stakeholders and field missions to TCI.

DMO Advisory Committee (AC): It is comprised of 11 representatives of the tourism industry in the country. Target Euro team has organised since May 2022 regular meetings with the AC to share information and detail best practices about the organisational and financial models and receive feedbacks from the participants to define the best models for the DMO / TRA in TCI.

Individual meetings and field missions: Regular field visits each 5-6 weeks are planned from April 2022 to February 2023 which are attended from one up to three international experts of Target Euro team. Individual meetings with several local tourist stakeholders have already been organised in Providenciales, North and Middle Caicos, Salt Cay, Grand Turk, …).

15 strong team, which includes national, regional and internationals experts: