Caribbean and Intra-Caribbean Tourism

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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
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CTO Membership
Caribbean Map
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Caribbean Sub-regions
OECS Countries Dutch West Indies Anguilla Aru
ba 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 Martin
ique Other CARICOM Hispanic
Caribbean The Bahamas Cuba Barbados Dominican
Republic Belize Cancun / Cozumel Guyana Ven
ezuela Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago US
Caribbean Haiti Puerto Rico Suriname US
Virgin Islands Other Commonwealth Bermuda
Cayman Islands Turks and Caicos
Islands CARICOM
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Visitor Expenditure in the Caribbean (US
billion)






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Economic Benefits of Tourism

• Caribbean received US 19.6 p billion in 2000
  from Tourism

1999
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Employment in Tourism Industry

• CTO conservatively estimates that more than 900
  thousand persons are directly or indirectly
  employed in the tourism industry.

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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 Gdines - 28
• Jamaica - 25

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International Caribbean Visitor Arrivals
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International Caribbean Tourist Arrivals Growth
Performance 1987-2000
CARIBBEAN
WORLD
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International Caribbean Cruise Bed Days Growth
Performance 1991-2000
Mediterranean
World
Caribbean
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Growth in Tourist Arrivals to the Caribbean and
Selected Sub-regions since 1991
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Tourist Arrivals to the Caribbean by Sub Regions
2000
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Tourist Arrivals to the Caribbean by Major
Markets 2000p
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Room Capacity in the Caribbean
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Occupancy Rates in the Caribbean (percent)
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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

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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

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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

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The intra-regional travel market Maximizing the
Potential
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Overview of Intra-regional Travel
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Travel Patterns
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Circuits of Travel
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Purpose of intra-regional travel
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Purpose of travel contd
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Competitive issues affecting the Caribbean
Extra-regional travel
Relative difficulty of air access
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Competitive issues contd
High cost of transport and accommodation
Lack of knowledge/awareness
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Ideas for pro-active marketing
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Marketing strategies
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The way forward
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CTOS Intra-regional travel project
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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

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Projected Growth inWorld Caribbean Tourism

• 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

millions
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