 The tourism industry is one of St Lucia's major economic drivers with thousands of citizens employed within the sector. It is for this reason that the Government of St Lucia is prioritising the advancement of the sector. Minister for Tourism, Investments, Creative Industries, Culture and Information Honourable Dr Ernest Hilaire, speaking during the Caribbean tourism organisation's roundtable discussion on Wednesday highlighted the need to change the public's perception about the tourism industry. We saw the tourism sector as one that had to be addressed immediately. It is the largest contributor of our economy with an opinion, largest source of revenue for the country. And with one over the years that doing the employees the most in our country, there is still a lot of issues being raised about the ownership of the industry in St Lucia, about the benefits of how does it accrue across our population. And we very clear in our minds that we want to fulfil the philosophical understanding of the tourism industry in St Lucia. We want St Lucia to own it and see visitors as guests and not as people who just come to exploit them and just come to their country and not really spend. We want St Lucia to be more involved and for them, like I said, to own up to the industry and to own the industry. Honourable Dr. Hele specifying the government's intention to diversify the country's accommodation offerings in order to increase community participation in the industry. We are very serious about spending resources on offering more authentic St Lucia experiences to our visitors who come to St Lucia. We want to break down this notion that you get a result based experience, it is a societal attraction. We want it as a primary feature of the St Lucia experience and design modalities which are to be expressed to the visitor when they come to St Lucia. The minister at the round table discussion which was held on September 8, 2021 indicated that the government's long-term vision for the tourism sector includes the realisation of a major trickle-down effect to the people of St Lucia.