Visitor arrivals in region declines

VISITOR arrivals in the Caribbean in the last two years have declined due to fallout from the September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq, according to Culture and Tourism Minister Pennelope Beckles.

However, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have reported that there are signs of a recovery, because people have refused to stop travelling. While delivering the feature address at the regional tourist conference, “Enhancing Tourist Destinations — Policies and Strategies for Visitor Protection,” at the Hilton Trinidad, Beckles quoted from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Progress and Priorities Report 2002-2004. She said, “the different understanding of safety and security has probably affected the travel and tourism sector more than any other industry.” The Minister also said the report noted that it was not surprising that travel patterns have changed because of the terrorist assaults and the long period of uncertainty leading to the Iraq war.

Beckles said the WTTC’s statistics revealed that the prolonged impact of war resulted in falling demand in the ten largest tourism economies this year. There was a 2.3 percent drop in the US, 1.6 percent drop in Japan, 2.6 percent drop in Germany, 2.1 percent drop in the UK and a 3.4 percent drop in France. She said just as significant was the impact on employment. Data, she said, showed that almost 450,000 jobs in the travel and tourism industry were lost in the US, 87,000 were lost in Japan, 27,000 in Germany and 11,000 in France. The Minister stressed that while these events may seem remote to the Caribbean, the events had a direct impact on the region’s tourism fortunes. Beckles said statistics from the CTO showed declines in visitor arrivals to the region of 2.0 percent and 2.5 percent in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

Statistics from TIDCO showed that for the first quarter of this year, this country saw some 8,000 tourist arrivals, an increase of 15.6 percent. This was due to the large number of visitors coming for Carnival in February. However arrivals in January and March were lower than for the same months last year. Beckles also underscored the need for the issue of safety and security of visitors to be dealt with, because it was “a key feature of attractiveness” for selecting a destination. National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee, in his address, said given the growth of the tourism sector, safety and protection of visitors could not be overlooked. He assured participants of Govern-ment’s support of initiatives to develop and implement viable solutions to the issue. He also reiterated that the successes of the Inter-Agency Task Force in dealing with crime in “hot zones” and the SRP 1,000 initiative to increase the visibility of police, as well as the introduction of 24 new mobile police stations throughout the country before the end of 2004. Chin Lee was unable to say if the recent spate of kidnappings impacted on tourist arrivals.