Caribbean and Intra-Caribbean Tourism Current Situation and Perspectives Mercedes Silva

1. Caribbean and Intra-Caribbean Tourism Current Situation and Perspectives Mercedes Silva Sustainable Tourism Specialist Caribbean Tourism Organization 8th Meeting of the Special Committee on Sustainable Tourism of the Association of Caribbean States Port of Spain, April 4th, 2002

2. CTO Membership Caribbean Map

3. Caribbean Sub-regions • OECS Countries Dutch West Indies • Anguilla Aruba • Antigua & Barbuda* Bonaire • British Virgin Islands Curacao • Dominica* Saba • Grenada * St Eustatius • Montserrat* St Marteen • St Kitts and Nevis* • St. Lucia * French West Indies • St Vincent and the Grenadines* Guadeloupe • Martinique • Other CARICOMHispanic Caribbean • The Bahamas Cuba • Barbados Dominican Republic • Belize Cancun / Cozumel • Guyana Venezuela • Jamaica • Trinidad and Tobago US Caribbean • Haiti Puerto Rico • Suriname US Virgin Islands • Other Commonwealth Bermuda • Cayman Islands • Turks and Caicos Islands * CARICOM

4. Visitor Expenditure in the Caribbean (US$ billion) $ $ $ $ $ $

5. Tourism Receipts US$ million Montserrat 9.0 Netherlands Antilles 482.4 St. Kitts/Nevis 58.2 St Lucia 276.7 St. Vincent 75.3 Suriname 44.0 T & T 212.8 Turks & Caicos 238.0* USVI 1,156.8 Puerto Rico 2,387.9 Venezuela 1,197.2 Cozumel 349.8 Cuba 1,857.0 Curacao 226.5 Dominica 47.2 Dominican Rep. 2,860.2 Grenada 70.2 Guadeloupe e400.2* Guyana 59.0* Haiti 54.0 Jamaica 1,333.0 Martinique 404.0* Anguilla 56.6 Antigua & Barbuda 290.1 Aruba 638.0 Bahamas 1,814.0 Barbados 718.5 Belize 121.1 Bermuda 431.0 Bonaire 55.8 BVI 315.1 Cancun1,996.0 Cayman Is. 439.4* Economic Benefits of Tourism Caribbean received US$ 19.6 p billion in 2000 from Tourism * 1999

6. Employment in Tourism Industry CTO conservatively estimates that more than 900 thousand persons are directly or indirectly employed in the tourism industry.

7. Importance of Tourism to Caribbean Economies Visitor Expenditure as a Percentage of GDP Anguilla - 75% Cayman Islands - 60% St. Lucia - 55% Antigua & Barbuda - 49% Aruba - 41% Barbados - 36% St. Kitts & Nevis - 31% Grenada - 28% St. Vincent & G’dines - 28% Jamaica - 25%

8. International & Caribbean Visitor Arrivals

9. International & Caribbean Tourist Arrivals • Growth Performance 1987-2000 CARIBBEAN WORLD

10. International & Caribbean Cruise Bed Days • Growth Performance 1991-2000 Mediterranean World Caribbean

11. Growth in Tourist Arrivals to the Caribbean and Selected Sub-regions since 1991

12. Tourist Arrivals to the Caribbean by Sub Regions 2000

13. Tourist Arrivals to the Caribbean by Major Markets 2000p

14. Room Capacity in the Caribbean

15. Occupancy Rates in the Caribbean (percent)

16. Challenges to Caribbean Tourism • Diminished economic growth in many of our source market • Reduced profitability of airlines • More countries seriously adopting tourism as a viable development option • Increased leisure travel options within our major markets • Changing Consumer Patterns • Changing distribution systems

17. Challenges After September 11th • Safety and security the primary concern of travelers both in terms of Air travel and safety at the destination • Shorter booking window, reduced from three months to as much as four weeks • Economic downturn..increased un-employment

18. Growing Competition - Product • Higher levels of service outside Caribbean • Freer cross-border travel (notably Europe) • Huge growth in cruise ship inventory and cruising destination • Better scheduled airlift to other regions • Lack of investment and innovation in product development in the region

19. The intra-regional travel market Maximizing the Potential

20. 21.1 million Stay-Over Arrivals in 2000 10.2 million visitors from the U.S. 5.0 million visitors from Europe 1.5 million visitors from the Caribbean 1.2 million visitors from Canada Overview of Intra-regional Travel

21. Top five destinations 2000 Cuba – 161.7 thousand Trinidad and Tobago – 114.2 thousand Barbados – 87.4 thousand Dominican Republic – 129.9 thousand Puerto Rico – 153.3 thousand Travel Patterns

22. Historical ties Regional groupings Language Air lift Circuits of Travel

23. Leisure Shopping Sports Social/cultural Personal business Visiting Friends and Relatives Purpose of intra-regional travel

24. Medical Education Business Purpose of travel cont’d

25. Competitive issues affecting the Caribbean Extra-regional travel Relative difficulty of air access

26. Competitive issues cont’d High cost of transport and accommodation Lack of knowledge/awareness

27. Stakeholder roles National tourism organisations Travel agents Accommodation sector Airlines Ideas for pro-active marketing

28. Fairs and exhibitions Sales missions Media relations Special interest/niche markets Advertising Direct marketing Travel trade Collateral material In-flight Marketing strategies

29. Commitment Marketing Resources Product development Information Market research Demand The way forward

30. Awareness Marketing Measurement Product development CTO’S Intra-regional travel project

31. Towards the Future • The Caribbean is perceived as a safe destination in comparison to its major competitors in the middle east and Asia. • Declines in September estimated at 19% are leveling off and showing positive signals of recovery. • Preliminary estimates suggest that arrivals to the region in 2001, declined by 2% compared to 2000 • Efforts being made towards Sustainable tourism initiatives inclusive of improved product & human resource development • Greater effort in marketing & research

32. Projected Growth inWorld & Caribbean Tourism millions ave. annual 1995 2000 2010 % ch. Caribbean 14.7 20.3 28.4 4.6 World 567.0 698.8 937.0 3.6 % share 2.6% 2.9% 3.0%

33. www.onecaribbean.org www.doitcaribbean.com