“Tourism in The Caribbean: Whither Goest Thou?”

Presentation by His Excellency C.A. Smith

Ambassador of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas

José A. (Tony) Santana
International School of Hospitality & Culinary Arts

Buenos dias, damas ee caballeros

I wish to thank Omar Pagan, the dean of the Jose Santana International School, along with the faculty of this fine institution for the kind invitation to examine with you the future of tourism and the hospitality industry in the Caribbean. of Hospitality & Culinary Arts

During our examination, we shall focus on:

The history and development of the Caribbean tourism industry

The economic impact of tourism on the region

The way forward to ensure sustainability of the industry, and

Business and employment opportunities the industry provides to the region.

“I never saw a lovelier sight: trees everywhere, lining the river green and beautiful. They are not like our own, and each has its own flowers and fruit. Numerous birds large and small singing away sweetly…it is a joy to see all the woods and greenery. It is the most beautiful island ever seen.”

Thus wrote Christopher Columbus in his journals, recording his first impression of the Caribbean.

Later in the journals, he says: “The fish here show an amazing difference from our own. Some are like cocks with the handsomest colouring in the world; blue, yellow, red, all colours. Others are marked in different ways. No man can look at them without amazement and delight, the colours are so beautiful.”

And later: “The islands are very green and lush, with sweet breezes. There may be many things here which I do not know about, because rather than lingering, I wish to explore…”

Students, it is this basic human instinct to explore which makes travel the fastest growing industry in the world. The World Travel and Tourism Council’s most recent long-term forecasts point to a mature but steady phase of growth for world travel and tourism. They forecast that between 2009 and 2018, travel and tourism will grow at a rate of 4.4 percent per year, supporting 297 million jobs and producing 10.5 percent of global GDP by 2018.

In the Caribbean, we have sought to capitalize on this industry by tapping the potential of the assets that excited Columbus’ imagination and fired his descriptive passions.

And what are these endowments with which we seek to ensure the progress and wellbeing of our peoples in the Caribbean?

Location

The Caribbean region lays tucked just off the southern tip of North America and just above South America, in some of the most spectacular waters on the planet. North America is home to more than 520 million people, and South America over 380 million. That is a market of close to one billion people.

Climate

The region enjoys mild climatic conditions all year round in which visitors can enjoy the triune gifts of sun, sand and sea that make the Caribbean the sun destination that is the envy of many.

Diversity

The Caribbean is a diverse region. There are rolling hills, wide plains, sandy sea shores and lush green valleys. The flora and fauna mentioned by Columbus in his journals live and thrive in abundance as nowhere else on planet earth. This diversity provides many opportunities for new and unexpected experiences.

Accessibility

I often tell people in Washington DC, where my office is located, that they could wake up one morning, leave DC at 8am and be on the beach sipping rum punch in The Bahamas just after 11am. And while The Bahamas enjoys the good fortune to be located so close to North America, nowhere in the Caribbean could be considered truly far away.

These are some of the assets that set our region apart. They captivated Columbus, and they continue to captivate his successor visitors from all over the world.

It was not until the mid 1950s that my own country, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, experimented with a seasonal industry catering to the very wealthy who wished to escape the harsh winters and the economic uncertainties in Europe, Canada and the United States. And it was not until the 1970s that other Caribbean governments began to take a serious look at the leisure travel industry as a potential engine of economic development.

You may ask why it took so long before Caribbean governments recognized the value of tourism. Well, the economic model at the time was based on agriculture and light manufacturing. This was under-girded by guaranteed preferential agreements like the Caribbean Basin Initiative between the Caribbean and the United States, CARIBCAN with Canada and the Lomé Convention, now the Economic Partnership Agreement with Africa and the European Community. Caribbean governments relied on traditional exports like bananas, sugar cane, coffee, rum and bauxite to maintain their economic viability, but the high oil prices of the 1970s coupled with trade liberalization caused governments in the region to seek alternative means of economic development. They turned to tourism.

Caribbean governments realized early that even with the natural endowments, certain prerequisites were necessary to create a stable, successful tourism industry.

These prerequisites included:

A. Strategic planning

This is fundamental for the efficient and effective use of resources and funds. Planning for tourism development and promotion helps to develop and support local businesses connected to tourism. In The Bahamas, we seek linkages between tourism and the domestic business sector. Strategic planning for tourism development cannot be independent from other community development initiatives.

B. Promotion

Successful tourism promotion and development requires good leadership. For the Caribbean tourism industry to continue to grow there must be coordinated leadership in promoting and marketing the Caribbean brand. Tourism entrepreneurs, local government officials, and nonprofit organizations such as convention and visitors bureaus must all be involved.

C. Packaging

The complete vacation package is a balanced mix of businesses for tourism, including adequate lodging, transportation, restaurants, shops, attractions and activities that draw visitors. The development of such a package would not only attract tourists, but encourage them to stay, spend money, and most importantly, come back.

Having recognized the challenges in becoming competitive tourism destinations, Caribbean governments implelented a number of incentive programmes designed to attract investment in the hospitality and travel industry. These incentives included:

Massive government investment in infrastructure. Care and attention was paid to the development and modernization of sea and air ports. Roads and highways were made safer. Public utilities were modernized and upgraded, and telecommunications services were revamped and updated.

Community educational programmes. Years ago, The Bahamas implemented a programme called “Bahamahost,” designed not only to equip Bahamians with skills to improve customer service, but also to persuade them of the true impact of tourism on their standard of living. Such programmes exist in differing forms elsewhere in the region.

Tourism-based curriculum in schools. From primary school through university, tourism and hospitality studies have a pervasive presence in the school curriculae of Caribbean nations. In fact, the José A Santana International School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts here at the University del Este in lovely Carolina, Puerto Rico, is the kind of forward-thinking approach that is necessary for a sustainable tourism industry.

Public/private partnership in advertisment. The creation of hotel authorities, ministries of tourism and joint tourism authorities across the Caribbean was a response to the reality that the joint marketing campaigns worked well for both sides, public and private.

Perhaps the ultimate expression of public/private partnership was the formation of the Caribbean Tourism Organization to provide research, policy formulation and guidance to the industry. The CTO’s data and policy analysis have been crucial to tourism development in the region.

These efforts, as expensive as they were, paid great dividends, and by the year 2000, nearly 33 million tourists visited the Caribbean, spending over $21 billion.

Students, the Caribbean is now the most tourism-dependent region in the world.

Tourism receipts have a significant impact on the region’s gross domestic product (GDP), balance of payment, employment, government revenue and investment.

Digging deeper, the data shows that in some Caribbean countries, tourism employs nearly half the workforce, and receipts from tourism amount to as much as 4o percent of government revenue.

The Caribbean tourism industry has a demonstrated track record of resilience. We weathered the oil crisis in the early 1970s, the global economic downturn in the early 1990s and the ‘9/11’ terror attacks in 2001.

The data shows that prior to the economic crash, tourism in the Caribbean had been on an upswing, with increasing revenue and profitability. Both arrivals and spending had been steadily growing. In fact, 20 years ago, aggregate visitor spending was just under US$4 billion, while in 2008, visitors spent an estimated US$27 billion in the Caribbean.

There is no denying, however, that the downturn in the global economy and the unprecedented credit crunch has had a disastrous effect on tourist arrivals to the Caribbean.

As 2009 opened, weakening demand led to drastic changes in airline schedules; hotels and cruise lines slashed prices, cutting heavily into profitability, and cruise lines were stuck with recently acquired inventory as well as undelivered mega-vessels.

Global overnight visitor arrivals were down steeply. Nearly all destinations experienced a contraction beginning in September 2008 which grew progressively sharper. Most countries expect declines in both arrivals and tourism receipts of five to eight percent this year.

This steep decline in tourism receipts has resulted in soaring unemployment in the region.

The flagging tourism outlook has also put a damper on development. Investment in new properties and maintenance and upgrade of existing ones were put on hold. Around the region hotel construction projects slowed or halted over the past 12 months as investors watched the global situation and tried to time the resumption of their efforts to coincide with the anticipated upturn in the world’s economies.

Let me here say a special word on investment: our region hungers for investment capital. The Caribbean needs to attract ever-increasing levels of public and private sector investment for the development of resorts and attractions and to underwrite human resource development and infrastructure improvement.

Travel complications due to security concerns also played a part in restricting Caribbean tourism, with the inconvenience of lengthy lines at airports aggravating potential visitors, many of whom had to remember to get a passport for international travel. These constraints put a definite curb on what tourism experts call “impulse travel:” after all, its much easier to jump on a plane to someplace fun and exciting when one does not need a passport to do so, and it is much less inviting when one must confront long lines and overworked customs, immigration and homeland security officials before even getting on the plane.

This sequence of events has all but brought tourism in the Caribbean to its knees.

We have observed the origins of tourism in the Caribbean, and its development into the major economic engine in the region. We have reviewed the impact of tourism on every segment of society. We have seen the vulnerability of Caribbean tourism to external events, and we have heard the litany of troubles afflicting the Caribbean in the wake of financial disaster. Let us now look ahead.

Students, I believe that the Caribbean tourism industry stands at the brink of a future that must be faced with far less certainty than before. While forecasts and predictions remain part and parcel of the policy development toolkit, they must be tied more strongly to disciplined leadership, sound policy, effective strategy, and national commitment.

The World Tourism Organization asserts that the conditions of the tourism market are starting to indicate stronger prospects for a recovery in 2010.

In fact, while the numbers remain relatively bad, they are less bad now than they had at the beginning of this year. For example, international arrivals declined by 4 percent in July, a relative improvement when compared to decreases of 10 percent in May and 7 percent in June.

Considering the lessons of the immediate past and the needs of the future, it is clear that public and private sector must work together, pooling both resources and ideas to create a united front to protect the industry and ensure its sustainability. There must be a coordinated approach to dealing with the challenges that face our tourism industry.

And what are these challenges?

Crime

Crime statistics throughout the region are cause for deep concern. A 2007 report from the World Bank placed the overall murder rate in the Caribbean at 30 per 100,000 inhabitants, four times that of North America. Growth and prosperity through tourism in such an environment is difficult to sustain, a fact that has provided the impetus for closer cooperation between regional security forces and those of the US. As we emerge from the morass of the global financial meltdown, the performance of the Caribbean tourism sector will depend on a number of factors, among them the continued perception of the Caribbean as a relatively safe and stable region.

Just consider the impact of the Natalie Holloway story on Aruba’s tourism. This single isolated incident continues to have significant negative impact on Aruba’s visitor count some four years after the unfortunate disappearance of Miss Holloway.

Climate change

We must also grapple with the problem of climate change. Both the Caribbean tourism and fisheries industries are severely vulnerable to global warming and weather anomalies, particularly the damage that could be wrought by changes in sea surface temperatures and sea levels. These phenomena could result in flooding and erosion in low-lying coastal areas, and in fact beach erosion in many Caribbean countries is already a sad fact.

Just last week, Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed and eleven of his government ministers donned scuba gear and plunged nearly twenty feet into the Indian Ocean for a special cabinet session. They were calling for concerted global action on climate change.

Maldives is the lowest-lying nation on earth, and could be submerged by rising sea levels due to global warming.Many Caribbean nations share the same concern. In fact, in my country there is grave concern that just a few feet of sea level rise would devastate many communities. Fueling this concern is recent scientific data that suggests that for every one degree the world warms, sea levels rise nearly five feet.

Natural disasters

The Caribbean must also deal with natural disasters. Nobel prize-winning scientist JohnAgard has reported that rising temperatures are causing hurricanes to last longer, and to become stronger and more destructive.

Projections for the future are that the frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms was likely to increase, rather than diminish. Last year’s hurricane season corroborates that finding, having been one of the worst on record. I am sure you recall the dramatic situations of Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic in the wake of successive tropical storms.

With tourism being the region’s largest employer, anything that affects the quality of the environment has a direct link to the wellbeing of our people, their jobs and incomes. Fear of hurricanes and their increasing frequency and intensity keeps tourists away. We must find ways to deal with climate change, and its devastating effect on the economy of the region.

Competition

The competition for the tourist dollar is fierce. Every nation on earth is now an active player in the tourism industry. Not only do they compete for the incoming consumer, they are also becoming increasingly sensitive to the value of domestic tourism. Domestic tourism conserves foreign exchange and creates standby demand when international demand falters. Florida has become a formidable competitor with the Caribbean for the US vacationer.

Farther afield, Dubai made a spectacular entrance on the world tourism horizon, enabling that destination to almost leapfrog the 20^th Century in terms of its development. Now promoting itself as a destination for the 21^st century, with a heavy emphasis on the safety and stability factors, Dubai’s success can only be viewed with awe. The Dubai phenomenon should serve as a sobering reminder that the Caribbean has no monopoly on sun, sand and sea and that other regions with the ability to capitalize on the global demand for those features may also be able to apply other resources to make themselves more competitive.

Energy

The cost and supply of energy are critical components of the industry and have major consequences for tourism. Providers of tourism goods and services pass on high electricity high to their consumers. The region must embrace green energy, particularly solar power, and make ourselves less dependent on oil.

Tourism experts say now is the time to consider re-branding the region as the premier green destination in the world. Now is the time, perhaps, to reposition the traditional Caribbean tourism product to more effectively include eco and nature based attractions.

In the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, we have established an eco-tourism desk that deals exclusively with this growing brand of tourism. Our experience has shown that competitive advantage in this market will be derived from authenticity of the eco-product including the entire vacation experience.

Let us now discuss the business and job opportunities that exist within the tourism sector. They are numerous and varied. Practically every career choice can have a tourism application, from the sciences to the arts to industry and the trades to commercial enterprises…everything is fair game.

Students, there has long been a perception that the only jobs easily available in tourism are menial jobs. As the new century marches on, new vistas open up, and as you take advantage of educational opportunities, the opportunities in the industry available are growing exponentially.

There are the more traditional careers encompassing everything that makes a resort tick, from accountants and auditors to security officers, bellmen, restaurant servers, technicians, electricians and human resource managers.

Then there are the professions. Lawyers, doctors, engineers, contractors, security professionals, electricians, mechanics, marine biologists, ecologists – all the trades and professions are required for a successful and dynamic tourism industry.

Careers in the arts have always been associated with tourism, as our unique and fascinating cultures in the Caribbean rank high among the reasons the area has remained attractive to tourists. Just consider the impact the music of Bob Marley had on tourism in his native Jamaica, or the droves of people who flock to Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival every year.

And of course, there is the food. Caribbean cuisine is becoming increasingly popular among the world’s gourmands, and demand for chefs continues to grow as new ethnic restaurants open their doors.

We can see that if we consider carefully, the opportunities afforded by the tourism and hospitality industry are endless. As we conclude, let us recall that this industry is the prime earner for the Caribbean region, and that in many countries as much as half the work force is employed in tourism. This means that it is with tourism that we in the region feed and clothe our families, finance our hopes and dreams, and ultimately make our contribution to the world. It is critical therefore that we ensure the sustainability of the industry.

How do we do that? What is the way forward for us as a region?

Experts have identified some imperatives:

Firstly, we need to have greater control over air access to the region and the cost of reaching one’s destination of choice.

We need to improve the broadband infrastructure that will enable us to truly harness the power of the internet and its ability to level the marketing playing field.

We need to redouble our efforts at human resource development and provide greater investment in social programmes to ease the conditions that provide fertile ground for crime.

We need to get a collar on crime and keep it under control.

We need to develop imaginative incentive schemes that will attract investment from abroad and stimulate it at home.

We need to take another look at adopting a collective approach to marketing the Caribbean. Experts expect the next 18 months to be a pivotal time for Caribbean tourism. An injection of marketing and collaboration among members could produce significant results despite market conditions.

We in the Caribbean need to improve and sustain our efforts to reduce the cost of intra regional travel and to expand the regional market opportunities for linkages between the tourism industry and the agricultural, services-producing and manufacturing sectors.

Finally, we in the Caribbean must embrace green tourism. It seems only natural to me that we must become known as “the green Caribbean,” considering how abundantly blessed we are in the scope and diversity of our natural attributes.

Nowhere in the world boasts ecology like ours, in as pristine a condition as ours, as easily accessible as ours. We must make use of the fact that our marine ecology is a source of wonder for the scientific community, and we must turn that wonder into a means to draw visitors to our shores.

It is no accident that aquamarine, the color of our waters, is a fusion of blue and green. When we fully embrace our natural advantages and plunge wholesale into green tourism, I believe the Caribbean will see immediate and immense rewards.

Students, let me end with the story of an encounter between a young boy and a wise old man. The boy ran up to the old man, and said, “I have a bird in my hand. I bet you can’t tell me if it is alive or dead!” The old man thought for a moment, and then he answered, “If I say the bird is alive, you can squeeze your hand and crush it dead, whereas if I say it is dead, you can open your hand and let it fly free.”

Students, that is my answer to the question underlying this presentation. When I am asked whither goest tourism in the Caribbean, my answer is that the fate of tourism in the Caribbean lays in the hands of the Caribbean people. It is up to us to determine whether we strangle it, or open our hands, release, and let it soar.

Gracias.