Skerritt: SKN Must Work Harder to Improve Tourism Brand

Skerritt: SKN Must Work Harder to Improve Tourism Brand
By L.K. Hewlett
 
Despite a 10 percent increase in cruise passenger arrivals for the first quarter of this year, Minister of Tourism Hon. Richard Skerritt says there is still room for improvement.

The St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) reported a rise in cruise passenger arrivals however it noted that airlift passenger arrivals had decreased by almost 4 percent compared to the comparative period in 2010.

Skerritt, who is also responsible for International Transport, said the airlift arrival figures could be confusing to the public as they represent movement of all passengers through RLB Airport, “local and visitor, Caribbean and Non-Caribbean”. He said he could only speculate as to the reason for the fall off in air passenger arrivals.

“The figures do not specify country of origins or destinations or nationalities of travelers, etcetera. However my educated guess would be a continued fall off in Caribbean travel and local originating travel. USA and UK arrivals were both up by double digits during the first quarter,” he told this media house.

SCASPA data also showed that passengers leaving declined 1.49 percent for the first quarter this year, down 523, from 34,988 in 2010 to 34,465 in 2011. Skerritt said St. Kitts-Nevis was no different from the rest of the Caribbean which was experiencing a general decline in intraregional travel. The Observer inquired if travel from St. Kitts is being impacted by the rising cost in airfare.

“Intra-regional travel decisions are definitely hindered by high fares. Kittitians and Nevisians are no exception,” he responded, adding that government was allocating the majority of the Tourism budget toward supporting airlift and related marketing activities for generating land-based visitors.

The Minister explained that a “relatively small piece of the pie” is used for cruise shipping promotions. “The cruise lines fill the ships which always arrive full. We focus on getting the lines to decide to add St. Kitts to their itineraries.”

As it relates to the overall Tourism product of St. Kitts, Skerritt says government has provided generous marketing and fiscal measures to support the survival and growth of all four sector components.

“Our tourism involves four equally important sector components: Hotel & Restaurant, Cruise Shipping, Villa development and rentals, and Education tourism. All four sectors are important to our economy and feed off each other and create the diversity that we need to have a year-round tourism industry, he said.

Senator Skerritt said there was no recent data available to show how visitor numbers correlate to revenue earned, since no survey had been done outside of the cruise sector “for years”.

“We have not done a scientific expenditure survey outside of the cruise sector for years and one is badly needed. The per-visitor expenditure for hotel guests is obviously higher than for cruise passengers. What we have conducted is a series of ongoing demographic and satisfaction surveys at our airport. The type of stopover visitors we are attracting are definitely higher income earners than before.

“This does not say how much they are actually spending but can be a useful indicator,” he explained.

The Tourism Minister said the periodic BREA economic impact survey done for the FCCA has shown a doubling of the expenditure per person for cruise visitors to St. Kitts between 2006 and 2009.

Skerritt told The Observer that despite any marginal gains made in Tourism, there was always room for improvement and growth.

“St Kitts and Nevis now must work even harder to achieve excellence and add value to the vacation experience for each and every visitor.”