Vincent Vanderpool Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)

During the recently concluded Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference (CHIC 2005) in Miami, Vincent Vanderpool, the CTO´s new secretary-general and former director of tourism for the Bahamas, gave Caribbean News Digital his first exclusive interview after taking over at the helm of this major regional organization. This is what Mr. Vanderpool had to say:

Q: We´d like to know what your program really is as new secretary-general of the CTO. What´s your viewpoint in terms of the relations with CHA, and the CTO´s opening to new markets?

A: Certainly, one of the things that we indicated to our CTO meeting in New York, when I was appointed, that there were a few things we wanted to focus on. Number two, was private-public sector cooperation and coordination, meaning principally CTO and CHA would be working much closer together than ever before. I have always believed that tourism is a joint private-public sector enterprise. It isn´t something that government does or something that the private sector does, because the visitor doesn´t care who did it.

They want to have a wonderful experience, and so we both have to work together to make sure that the visitor´s experience is the very best it can be, be it an airport, be it a road, be it a hotel. Be it whatever it may be, the visitor has to have the very best experience and that only comes from the private and public sectors working together.

Q: And what is your program exactly going to be like?

A: It´s very simple. What we do, first of all, is that we put in writing what it is that we´re going to achieve, so that everybody knows what we´re going to try to do. And when we started talking about it –and we´re talking about it internally now, I´m not talking about it publicly until we have an agreement within CTO, and first we need to have an agreement between CTO and CHA. Once we´ve done that, then I´ll start talking about it publicly because it is not Vincent´s program, it´s a program for the entire tourism development in the Caribbean.

Q: And what about other institutions in the Caribbean, not CTO or CHA or CARICOM? What do you think about those other institutions, like the FCCA?

A: Oh, you mean the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association. Well, cruise is very much an important product of development of tourism in our region. I had a meeting with them (FCCA) this afternoon. In fact, we´ve been working very closely with FCCA to make sure that we´re meeting our mutual goals, and again the same thing, we would tell them, “here´s what we´re going to try to achieve and here´s how we think we´re going to do it and we need you help me to get there,” and we want to be sure that we all understand what we exist to do, and once we understand that, we can begin working much closer together.

Q: What about the opening to the European market, the Spanish market? What do you think about the fusion of the entire Caribbean?

A: There´s only one Caribbean, and you´ll see, for example, in our website, www.onecaribbean.org, which is our principle website –and we wish we can get to the point where we reflect that in everything that we´re doing- the beauty of the Caribbean is the variety of the Caribbean, from French and Dutch and Spanish and English, and making sure all that happens.

So, I´m very sensitive to that and you´ll find that when I begin moving around the Caribbean, the first places I´m likely to go will not be the English-speaking Caribbean, but the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the Dutch-speaking Caribbean, the French-speaking Caribbean, and of course, the English-speaking Caribbean, because we want everybody to understand there´s only one Caribbean and the beauty of it is the variety that we have.

So, I´m going to spend a lot of time making sure that my understanding of all the languages is going to prove quite rapidly, because that´s very important to me. Make sure that the programs we´re putting together, that they see themselves included in that, so there´s not an English-speaking angle, or a French-speaking angle or a Spanish-speaking angle, but an angle that encompasses the entire thing.

Incidentally, the program that we´re putting forward for all the members to approve, before I send it forward I want it translated in various languages, so that everybody understands that I am committed to making sure that it includes all the markets and includes all the languages.

Q: How do you foresee CTO´s presence at different tradeshows and fairs, like ITB and FITUR? What happened with FITUR fair?

A: Well, we´re already talking about it and I´m still trying to figure out why we weren´t at ITB last year because we wanted to be sure, again it goes like the same story, and it´s that when we start talking about what the plan is, let´s make sure that the plan includes what everybody thinks is very important, because I don´t want to find myself in a situation where I´m declaring that these are the most important ones only to discover that they´re only the most important ones because of my background in the Bahamas or the English-speaking Caribbean.

They must be the most important ones for all the Caribbean. So, you´re going to find that we´re going to reflect what the general membership believes are the important ones. So, you´re going to find FITUR very high on the list this year because it´s most important that we begin by showing people that we´re very interested in that.

Q: What do you make of the latest Spanish investment spree in the Caribbean, that group of Spanish hoteliers now investing heavily in the Caribbean?

A: There are two things that built the brand of the Caribbean. Number one, its investors, local and international investors, and number two is the people. Now we have to make sure that the people understand that they´re very much a part of what we´re trying to achieve and show them how they can help us get there throughout the entire Caribbean.

This idea of just being a tourism sector, there´s no such thing. The entire Caribbean is the tourism sector, so the people have to embrace it and understand that. The second part of that is investors. Investors have to begin to put products in place that people want to come and visit. And that´s what we´re seeing happening in the Spanish Caribbean. Frankly, it´s leading the way in terms of investment development throughout the entire Caribbean.

So, it´s something that we think it´s to be encouraged as long as the culture of the destination is captured in that investment and brought forward. What we don´t want to see is a situation where there´s some kind of a tourist zone where tourists get into that zone and they get an experience. But that experience is not reflective of the entire destination. We want to see the culture of the destination brought into these investments to make sure people are getting the real Caribbean flavor.

Q: What option are you going to make to be able to convince others that Spanish hotel groups, as I mentioned earlier, do have a lot of things to convey to the Caribbean´s small English-speaking countries that have made no effort at all to learn about or lure those investments?

A: Great question, great question. When we sit down with investors, the beauty of it is that if you ever want to expand from your traditional markets, new markets, some of the best ways to do is to bring investors that help you get into that new market. So, if the English Caribbean wants to bring more Spanish visitors, people from Spanish-speaking countries, it´s better for them to get Spanish investors to come into the English Caribbean to enable that to happen.

So, we want to work with CHA, and they have the investment conference, to be able to talk to the Spanish investors and show them some of the business opportunities in other parts of the Caribbean to get them there. The same thing applies to French investors; the same thing applies to English investors, because the biggest way for us to expand our markets is to make sure that we get investors that have traditionally only been to one market to now move to all the others.

Q: As we speak, Spanish hotel chains are Europe´s number-one investors in the Caribbean. I believe the interest of the Caribbean in these groups is pretty scarce right now, is like there´s no awareness of their importance in the Caribbean.

A: Yes, right. A good example of it is RIU in the Bahamas. I mean, we applauded that and they had some difficulties in the Bahamas because the way of operating in the Bahamas is a little bit different from elsewhere, and the hoteliers in the Bahamas have been putting pressure of the Ministry of Tourism of the Bahamas to say, “we have to get them to bring in line.” What I´ve been saying to them is, “hey, wait a minute! Allow some time because we need them, you need to understand them and we need to understand each other before we can move this forward. So, part of our job at CTO is to broaden and deepen the investment throughout the region because that´s the best way for us to bring new markets into various territories.

Q: Is CTO going to attend FITUR 2006?

A: I can´t give you the answer to that yet because it really has to do with me getting the approval of my plan first. I certainly would like to see that happen, but I´m not going to presume that I have the only say. For that to happen I must first put out the plan to the Executive Committee, they approve the plan we intend to be there as of this moment, but until they approve the plan I can´t confirm that to you. But for 2007, certain.

Q: One last question. The only presence that CTO has in Europe right now is in London, which is not the same as having an office in Italy, Spain or Portugal. How do you assess this situation?

A: CTO can only grow and expand by expanding its resources. Job one for me is to make sure that we expand the resources available to CTO to enable CTO to do the minimum amount of work that it needs to be the representative of the entire Caribbean. So, we have some ways and we´re going to raise money, to bring more money into CTO to allow CTO to do the kind of things that you´re talking about. Because the big problem at it right now is constraints by reasons of funding and by reason of budget. We have a proposal that we´re going to put to the membership, that we know that they´re inclined to approve, but they haven´t done so as yet. Until they approve it, we have funds available to be able to do these kinds of things. Then, we´ll move in that direction.

I certainly would love to see CTO far more representative in a lot of places. I´ll give you the best example. It´s unfortunate, for example, that the Bahamas and Jamaica and Barbados and Puerto Rico, they have more offices than CTO. Well, we´ve got to fix that because we have to make sure that CTO is as broadly represented around the globe at least as the principal representation for any single member. That´s the point that we need to get to.