Caribbean islands share many issues regarding tourism and their individual economies.
That’s the message from ministers and directors of tourism who spoke at a special news briefing held in advance of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s State of the Industry conference at St Maarten.
Grenada has embarked on a three-year tourism strategic plan following a series of tourism workshops. The territory is experiencing the same problems as everywhere in the Caribbean, said Peter David of the National Democratic Congress, but arrival numbers had increased as had UK airlift from three carriers. Canadian and American airlines had also continued to visit. Cruise arrivals have increased by 12 per cent for the first six months of the year and stay-over was up by 9 per cent.
A letter of intent has been signed also by Colombia, Venezuela, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and Trinidad and Tobago. This may materialise into a flexible ‘one ticket, eight destination’ scheme where visitors can travel by air, ferry or cruise ship. Also proposed is a single yachting space to simplify entry of visiting yachts into Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Multi destination
Dutch St. Maarten’s director of tourism Maylin Chun said there would be a tourism authority established in the region. Some of its priorities will be developing airlift through visiting current and possible new companies. Diversifying, said Ms Chun, was important in a fast-moving economy, and there will be cooperative marketing with the private sector. One new market was Latin America, which now is connected to St Maarten by Copa Airlines, including a direct flight to Panama. The territory further said it was analysing closer ties with the French side of the island and intra-Caribbean travel, which Ms. Chun said had great potential. There had also been contact with Russia and emerging markets, she said, while European travellers were more likely to conduct multi-destination trips as the longer haul travellers had a longer stay.
Surveys and income
Richard Skerritt of the St. Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Tourism is also the chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Island. He praised St. Maarten’s diversity of cultures and said that was a reason for choosing the location for the conference. St. Kitts and Nevis had a long history of trade with Anguilla and St. Maarten, he said, with a lot of movement of people between the islands for recreation and trade. Visitor arrivals had gone up, but stay-over was not yet back to 2008 levels. Exit surveys at the sea and air ports had been undertaken three times a year, and the data gathered had shown a mean age of 50 with pre-tax income US$131,000 which was up by $3,000 year on year.
Air services were dependent on visitors filling seats and the nature of the business meant an inevitable drop in the off-peak months. However, St. Kitts has managed to expand its services with Air Canada and American Eagle both coming. Cruise visitation had seen consecutive growth for the past five years, with 650,000 projected between October 2011 and September 2012.
The new pier at Port Zante is now able to accept Oasis-class ships, with Allure of the Seas due to call beginning 30 December, 2011. Finally, there are several new resorts under development plus a private airport is on the table. Development on the island is boosted, said Mr. Skerritt, by the territory’s Citizenship by Investment programme, which after due diligence enables individuals who invest a minimum of $350,000 into approved projects to become citizens.
Muriel Wiltord, Director for the Americas for Martinique Tourism Authority, said the island had numerous flights from France, as well as the United States and Canada. She said air connections needed to be resolved; travelling was often done through Miami which made it difficult.
Regional airlines could be pushed more because Caribbean people liked to travel a lot and take short vacations to neighbouring islands. The strength of the French West Indies, including St. Maarten and Guadeloupe, was the historic ties to the mother country. French people take long vacations up to three weeks which might enable visits between islands, she said.
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