CTO Chair Predicts Challenging Winter Season for Caribbean

Visitor arrivals in the Caribbean in the first quarter of 2009 will decline between 20 percent and 35 percent depending upon the destination, according to Harold Lovell, chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and minister of tourism for Antigua & Barbuda.

“Based on the reports we have been getting, we know that the winter season will be very challenging and will require tremendous ingenuity and skill to take us through this difficult period,” Lovell said.

The CTO is advocating a number of approaches to deal with the situation, including collaboration at the national level among “all the players who will be impacted by this crisis,” Lovell said. “There is a great sense of urgency, and we must find ways to work with and help each other.”

The CTO is urging all suppliers to examine the credit lines that are available “to throw lifelines to the hotel sector,” Lovell said. “Banks and insurance companies must work together to forestall foreclosures and to keep open the money supply to investors and developers.

“What is most important is to maintain job levels. We must stabilize the economic situation and minimize job losses. Layoff options should be the final options.”

To help surmount the crisis, the region must enhance its competitiveness and ensure that the quality of visitors services rendered exceed expectations, he said. “The properties which receive financial concessions from the government must be required to increase staff training to ensure that the visitor experience is 100 percent positive.”

CTO has approached both LIAT and Caribbean Airlines and requested preferential rates for travel within the region by Caribbean nationals. “Once the details are ironed out, I think that both carriers will be convinced that this is one way to stimulate revenue from interisland travel,” Lovell said.

Plans to launch a regional branding program for the region, which has been in the works for some time, must be escalated. The Caribbean Tourism Development Co., which hopes to raise $60 million for a regional campaign, is looking at a $20 million contribution from the 15 countries that make up the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM; another $20 million from the 16 non-CARICOM countries; and $20 million from the cruise lines which serve the region.

In addition, the CARICOM nations met in Antigua last July and formed the Council of Trade & Economic Development to implement a $3 levy tacked on to airline tickets. That revenue would be funneled directly to the CTDC to implement part of the costs associated with the regional marketing and promotional campaign for the region.

“That sum represents less then 1 percent of the total airfare costs from the U.S. and less than .025 percent of air fares from the U.K.,” Lovell said. “We’re making headway with the CARICOM countries on the levy, and I am still reaching out to the non-CARICOM countries.

“Ideally, I would like to see this levy in effect by April 2009, but realistically, it will probably be winter 2009 before the final details are ironed out, with the levy taking effect by January 2010. This will be too late in terms of dealing with the immediate economic crisis, but it will help provide necessary funding for the branding campaign.”

In terms of the search for a permanent secretary general for the CTO to replace Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, who stepped down from the post last summer to assume the duties of minister of tourism for the Bahamas, listings for that position as well as for CTO’s director of finance and director of information management and research will be posted in early January, Lovell said.