Caribbean Travel by British Tourists Drops by a Quarter
Travel by black Britons to the Caribbean is falling significantly, according to recent statistics.
The figures released by the British Government’s own Office of National Statistics (ONS), coupled with other data from Caribbean sources, adds weight to claims that Air Passenger Duty (APD) and rising ticket costs are having a negative effect on the economy.
At a time of economic difficulty, the price hike is also making it more difficult for black Britons to travel to see friends and family, or to do business or vacation in the region.
Figures in the report reveal that the number of visits made by what is described as ‘visiting friends and relatives’ to the Caribbean – officially known as the VFR traveller – fell by 26.7 per cent from 165,000 in 2011 to 121,000 in 2012.
Spending by this segment of the market fell by 28.8 per cent from £89m to £66m.
In Jamaica, for example, while the length of stay of visiting friends and family increased from 20 nights in 2011 to 31 nights in 2012, the amount spent fell from £31 to £22 per day.
Figures produced by the ONS show that overall, UK visits to the Caribbean, in all categories, dropped by 12 per cent between 2011 and 2012, or from 866,000 visits to 760,000 in real terms.
The statistics are consistent with figures from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the East Caribbean Central Bank and other sources, which all show arrivals from the UK are falling while those from the US, Canada and continental European nations are increasing.
Other ONS data indicates the number of nights spent in the Caribbean by all UK visitors declined by 4.7 percent; an 8.3 per cent decrease in total spending of UK visitors in the Caribbean from £699m in 2011 to £641m in 2012; and average spend per day dropped by 1.9 per cent from £57.7 in 2011 to £56.6 in 2012.
Most startlingly of all, the ONS figures indicate that the number of business trips to the Caribbean halved, from 34,000 visits in 2011 to 18,000 in 2012.
What these figures do is provide new evidence for The Voice’s campaign to have the Caribbean reclassified on the same level of taxation as the US.
They, together with other figures coming from the Caribbean make clear that since 2008, arrivals from the UK to the Caribbean have continued to decline at a greater rate than from North America or the rest of Europe.
They enable black voters in Britain when lobbying the British Government and Members of Parliament to point directly to the damage being caused by Air Passenger Duty (APD) and to the interests of the Caribbean Diaspora in the UK.
David Jessop is the Managing Director of the Caribbean Council
Source: www.voice-online.uk
