Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called for the formation of a regional tour operator as she urged industry leaders to be “shakers, not takers”.
Mottley, delivering the keynote address at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association Caribbean Travel Marketplace Forum in Christ Church, Barbados, on 9 May, signalled that the region should stand as one, as regional tourism recovers post-pandemic.
“Nothing should stop you from leaving this country… without agreeing to form a major Caribbean tour operator company that is capable of managing our resources and managing flows to the Caribbean, immediately,” she said.
In a guarded swipe at those who knock the region about shell companies, she quipped, “we have already established how easy it is to form companies”.
Second from left, CHTA president Nicola Madden-Greig and, fourth from left, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley with, left to right, tourism ministers Charles Fernandez, (Antigua), Haydn Hughes (Anguilla), Kenneth Bryan (Cayman Islands); Denise Charles (Dominica); Ian Gooding Edghill (Barbados); Josephine Connolly (Turks and Caicos); and Edmund Bartlett (Jamaica). – Photo: Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism
Mottley, pointing to regional airlines such as Cayman Airways, suggested that countries should look at areas of cooperation to keep tourism profitable.
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“Caribbean Airways Limited, Cayman Airways, Bahamas Air, Inter-Caribbean… all of these multiple airlines… what is the level of cooperation that is taking place? We have spoken about cooperation and partnership for decades and we’ve had the luxury of not necessarily having to have success,” she said.
She said the region had enough – “we had sufficient to move people out of poverty, we had sufficient to be able to fill our rooms reasonably well, but we didn’t have sufficient to be able to be resilient and to be able to move through the choppiest waters.”
Mottley questioned how many people are prepared “to risk and to share”.
She said the pandemic demonstrated the need to work together.
“Fundamentally, we have discovered that the only way we could get through the pandemic was together. It wasn’t the public sector, it wasn’t the private sector, it wasn’t the households, but it was all combined. If ever there was a time for cooperation and partnership across countries, across sectors, across almost every modality of how we function… it is now,” she said.
Challenges continue
Nicola Madden-Greig, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association president, echoed the call for a unified Caribbean product.
Nicola Madden-Greig, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association president. – Photo: CHTA
In her CHTA presentation document, Madden-Greig wrote that linkages are a growing opportunity for the public-private sector “to truly use tourism to drive their economies, [and] new segments such as health & wellness, [and] sustainable tourism should be pursued.
“The Caribbean has all the assets to do well,” she said.
Global demand for travel is robust and the tourism industry continues to lead the region’s recovery while facing formidable challenges, Madden-Greig said, adding that recovery and growth are uneven with some destinations outpacing others.
“The pace of recovery is still threatened by rising operating costs, labor shortages, increasing airfares, global competition, economic uncertainty, and pressures from some governments to increase taxes. Many companies continue to forgo higher profits, plowing returns into covering debt incurred during [the] pandemic and opting to invest in product improvements as capital expenditures soar,” she said in her presentation document.
Consumers, she said, are keeping watch as recessions looms and inflation impacts continue to be felt.
“Labor and operating costs continue to rise,” she added, though cruise continues to rebound amidst labour market challenges.
Kenneth Bryan, Cayman’s Tourism Minister and chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, attended the conference.
He was part of a panel discussion alongside the tourism ministers from Barbados and Jamaica, Ian Gooding-Edghill and Edmund Bartlett, respectively; CEO of CHUKKA Caribbean Marc Melville; and chair of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association Renee Coppin.
The panel addressed several topical issues affecting the industry, including climate change, multi-destination connectivity, and the impact and influence of artificial intelligence within the tourism arena, according to a Cayman Islands Ministry of Tourism press release.
“I am very happy to attend the Caribbean Travel Forum and MarketPlace events and present the Cayman Islands’ perspective on a number of important regional issues. This forum is a welcomed opportunity to meet with other industry leaders to share ideas and discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the future growth and development of tourism in the Caribbean,” Bryan said in the release.
