The Billion Dollar Business that Caribbean Tourism Is (II)

There’s a great deal of protectionism in the public and private sectors in the tourism industry. But it is no longer valid to run tourism in this manner. There are a lot of developers with a lot of money, according to Miller.

Likewise, there are tons of information waiting to be found and processed –a lot of horizontal exchanges of information between partners in the industry are taking place, he said. The key is: “To act globally, whether there is business growing in Aruba, Curacao, Macau or Hong Kong, you have to be involved as a destination,” he added.

A new mindset should come about to alter or effect a change. “I think we need a revolution in the Caribbean! We need to act together to formulate a business plan in terms of our major goals,” said CTO secretary-general Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace.

The Caribbean needs to deliver experiences for people who will bring about positive word of mouth to the rest of the world; we need to work on a low-cost, high-quality, high-frequency transportation and efficient delivery of effective information to change behavior including closing ineffective tourism offices. “Let’s stop those things from happening and let’s get rid of all impediments once and for all,” Vanderpool-Wallace said. It is in developing human resources that the CTO and CHA believe should start right a working plan.

“Governments don’t understand MATH. That is the problem,” said the CTO chief who alluded to governments miscalculating arrival figures after they’ve insisted that 10,000 people will go to a particular match during the Cup, but failed.

“It takes 45 Boeing-757’s to get 10,000 people to a destination. It makes no sense! But they kept pushing it; how could you get 10,000 there? People are beginning to understand now that arithmetic works,” said Wallace referring to CTO/CHA efforts that included showing the US government the Custom’s study that the processing of passports won’t be possible in the given period of time. The CTO head said lack of arithmetic just torpedoed their security initiative.

The Caribbean should start to act less fragmented. “There are too many policies and some many different masters who don’t even have any clue,” said Chairman and Founder of Sandals and Beaches Resorts, Gordon “Butch” Stewart.

On leaders knowing inadequate math, he stressed: “Think about the $700 million we invested for Cricket. What the (hell) did we get out it? And what did we get out of that (stupid) one visa policy?” Further criticizing non-effective government practices and too much calculations being done on milking the sector dry, he said tourism should be tax-free.

“Taxation is the enemy of export while export remains the lifeblood of our economy. Tourism is a reverse-pattern export. It is true export industry,” he said making himself clear that for him, the issue is - the business side of doing tourism business lies in the hospitality sector.

To get the stakeholders round the table, a council of 33 ministers of tourism will be created, shaping the policy for tourism while they work hand in hand with the CTO and the CHA. Recognizing the diversity of the region, the U.S., Dutch, French, British and Spanish territories in the Caribbean need to find a common ground to bring about the major changes in tourism policy.

Mr. Chastanet closed, “People need to be engaged. The will for change has been lost. We are under attack; every market share is declining each year. We need to keep pace with the change and challenges posted by other destinations out there.” He added saying they need to care about the Caribbean as one product, as the Western world views the islands as one. That’s the easiest math to consider but one that needs a lot work from islanders who live off tourism dollars in the millions.