The Billion Dollar Business that Caribbean Tourism Is (I)

Official reports posted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reflect travel and tourism in the Caribbean in 2006 raked in as much as $51.3 billion of economic activity in total demand, with direct and indirect impact of 16.4 percent on gross domestic product (GDP) and 2.6 million jobs kept or created.

In the collective reports, the Caribbean surpassed a 4.8 percent growth in total demand in 2006, an estimated $9.1 billion or 19.9 percent of total capital investments ranking the region number one in relative contribution to regional economies and number 13 in absolute size worldwide.

Despite the positive regional growth marks shown on paper, the non-profit limited liability corporation Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), a federation of 36 national associations from Bermuda to Guyana, Barbados to Mexico and Belize, said Caribbean trends leaves much to be desired.

Evidence shows there has been a slowdown in recent tourism activities brought about by deep discounting by cruise lines affecting the land-based tourism; market softness made weaker by U.S. passport requirement implemented until the March 2007 rush burdened the U.S. passport department (discouraging or preventing Americans from traveling), as well as the U.S.-Caribbean territories not receiving the expected windfall from U.S. travelers without passports.

The issue on visas for single domestic space definitely had an effect –never has so many expected so much and received so little; far too much was expected from Cricket World Cup 2007 that people shut down other efforts in Europe.

At the recently-concluded Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Conference organized by the CHA, tourism leaders summoned all Caribbean tourism stakeholders to step up to the plate and rise to the new challenge.

So many times the islands find every excuse to keep the industry at a restful playback mode rather than at fast-forward. “We keep comforting ourselves with all the excuses we can find as to why we are not successful. U.S. economy is down; there wasn’t any airlift etc. What excuse did Dubai have during the Gulf War? What excuse did Dubai make when they had terrorism? And Thailand, the tsunami; Cancun, the hurricane?” asked Senator Allen Chastanet, chairman of the CTO and St. Lucia’s tourism and aviation minister.

In the Commonwealth Caribbean which hosted the Cricket Cup, the West Indies Cricket Board managed to convince governments to fork up $750 million for one single event. But Chastanet said they cannot seem to raise $4 million a year for regional marketing. Is it the state’s fault or tourism’s problem with not being able to communicate the rewards of the business to the region? The issue seems to lie in understanding the power of the Caribbean brand, he explained.

The Caribbean is now experiencing the repercussions of the malaise. There are lines around the passport blocks in the US and the waiting time for obtaining a passport is now between 3 to 4 months. “I am disappointed because two years ago when we started to predict the impact of the passport issue and losses to industry and jobs, I thought we have sent a message to the U.S. administration, and to the Caribbean heads of state that there was significant business at risk. Some took it seriously. Others did not,” said the managing partner of a revolutionary tool Tourism ROI, Richard Miller, who is also a former executive vice president of the WTTC. He added, “I told you so! We need to reignite discussions with Washington.”