THE 29th CARIBBEAN TOURISM CONFERENCE (CTC–29)
GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2006
 

Mr. Chairman; Distinguished Heads of Government; Secretary General CTO; Ministers of Government; Your Excellencies; Mr. President and Mr. Director General of the Caribbean Hotel Association; Tourism Public and Private Sector Colleagues; Distinguished Guests: Ladies and Gentlemen:

I want to add my welcome to that of Minister Wilchcombe and say how happy we are to play host to you in The Bahamas for CTC 29.

The largest industry in the world is travel and tourism.

Once considered a luxury item, “the vacation” has become now such a necessity that tourism is now indisputably the greatest vehicle of global exchange today surpassing even agriculture in the global economy.

Tourism is critically important to the life of the region and the livelihoods of her people.

In this global exchange, we provide millions of Americans, Canadians and Europeans each year with an escape from the cold, from everyday pressures, from the work routine.

We are trading partners, trading in the business of tourism.

It is not tracked on Dow Jones, NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange, but it is factored in the earnings of our airline partners, our hotel partners, and the growers and producers who supply consumables to the Caribbean.

We are all partners in this industry whether we are producers of the vacation experience or consumers of it.

The last time I stood before this august body, it was on the heels of one of the greatest blows, ever to our great neighbour to the north, the United States of America.

We had no clear idea, then, how and when that event would affect our region, if indeed it would at all.

But we know only too well that since September 11th 2001, each and every one of us has had to comply and meet the stringent security requirements.
We understand that the horrific acts of 9/11 have changed the way the business of travel is conducted.

As good neighbours and good partners to the U.S., we have changed with the times, increasing our security measures in the region and instituting new measures, notwithstanding the great cost to our national treasuries.

Today, we are particularly concerned about a pending measure that will be effected on the 8th of January, 2007: the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or WHTI.

Under this new initiative all US citizens traveling to and from the United States will be required to have a passport.

Gone will be the days of Americans traveling on their driver’s license and a birth certificate.  Gone will be the ability to travel on impulse for a quick weekend getaway.

Ladies and Gentlemen, on this one single issue, we have the opportunity to do all that the theme of this conference exhorts us to achieve – to co-operate, innovate, rejuvenate and create a brand new Caribbean.

As the head of the tourism committee of the Caribbean Community, I feel compelled to urge you to do just that!

Indeed, if this issue can be resolved to our further advantage, it is essential that we, as a region, come together and speak with one voice.

You have, no doubt, seen the power of a united front on this very same issue as achieved by the Cruise lines.

I say tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, just as I did four years ago on this very platform; that reinventing Caribbean tourism means being more co-operative with each other.

Those of us who remain affected by the WHTI must band together and mount a united effort to persuade the US Department of Homeland Security to extend to us the same consideration given to the Cruise lines.

On September 29, 2006 the US congress postponed until June 1, 2009 that portion of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative which requires travelers entering the U.S. by land or sea to present a passport.

However, if you plan to fly off to The Islands of The Bahamas or the Caribbean for a winter getaway you must still have a passport as of January 8, 2007.

No matter how difficult the task may be, we are obliged to unite and make every effort to overcome this challenge.

We must work together to request that the United States also delay implementation of WHTI as regards air travel.

This implementation of WHTI should be delayed until June 2009, which would allow the new rules to be uniformly applied and the playing field leveled.

While diplomatic initiatives are being taken at the highest level, however, we would be imprudent not to make contingency plans.

What are these to be?  It is indeed late in the day, but perhaps not too late.  I invite you to develop such contingency plans during the course of the next seven days that you spend with us here in The Islands Of The Bahamas.

As a start, I suggest that to encourage more US citizens to obtain this federally issued form of identification – this passport - that the US waive the expediting fee, which it charges applicants to secure a passport quickly.

This would enable US citizens to obtain a passport in days rather than weeks.

As a region, resilience is somehow our intrinsic nature.  No matter what, we will rebound as we have clearly done in the aftermath of so many natural disasters and economic downturns in the past.

But it is the way in which we resolve these challenges together that will allow us continued success in trading in tourism with our neighbouring superpower.

A brand new Caribbean is a Caribbean that comes together in a regional forum such as this one to discuss and find resolutions to issues and challenges that face us.

The rejuvenated new look of Caribbean Tourism today includes a reconditioned engine that drives our economies.

The engine has received an overhaul; it has been reconditioned, newer models are being introduced daily; and it is on the road to becoming more sustainable and even more beneficial to future generations of our region.

We have moved on from the building of traditional hotels as we did in the Eighties; from the way in which we distribute our product in the marketplace – that is – from tour operator and travel agent, to new technologies such as the Internet.

We have moved on in the way we are able to actually measure the impact of the tourism business on our economy.

There are more than 75 countries that are using the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), which reflects the economic contribution of tourism, ranging from GDP to job creation.

Let us make no mistake about it however: the traditional hotel product has lost much of its relevance within our region in recent years.

The business model underpinning traditional hotels has seen enormous attrition due to a combination of higher and unpredictable operating costs.
Traditional hotels have also been adversely affected by a change in consumer tastes toward vacation accommodation that favours residences over hotel rooms.

This has all combined to make traditional hotels much more difficult to finance than the pre-sold vacation home, time share and condo hotel products that are becoming so much more prevalent.

These newer developments throughout the Caribbean and in other parts of the world are commonly referred to as mixed-use resorts.  They include, single family homes, condos; condo-hotels, destination clubs, marinas and ‘dockominiums’.

New developments such as these call for new and innovative marketing ideas from each of us as well as collectively as a region.

These new developments also call for progressive and new policies within the jurisdiction where they are built, sold and operated, to ensure that as they displace the traditional hotel properties, they also become vibrant and sustainable contributors to our economies.

But new developments do not mean that the old problems have gone away.

For instance, the need for a viable regional air carrier remains a point of discussion.
Meanwhile a number of costly national flag carriers continue to represent an untenable drain on our treasuries.

The time must soon come when we accept the reality that air travel, especially for the short haul flights of 3 hours or less, is no longer perceived as a leisure experience that will command a significant premium from the bulk of our customers.

Travelers are more concerned with the right schedules; on time performance; their luggage arriving with them; and the best price for all of the above.

During your discussions, you should talk about strategies to determine how we in the region and our respective countries can ensure sustained airlift to and within our area.

We have thrown words at this problem before, several times in fact.

However, as new and more viable models for airline operation become evident and as the vagaries of international events impact oil prices, so does the need to move more resolutely toward a resolution of these challenges.

I cannot resist a reference to our own national motto which appears in our Bahamas’ coat of arms, “forward, upward, onward, together,” which seems so apt in this context!
The trade difficulties relating to banana and sugar production in certain Caricom countries has resulted in the reality of significant loss of jobs and the need to re-engineer those economies.

I have said before and now say again that tourism is the fastest and most effective generator of economic activity.  Very obviously this is the alternative available to those countries.  It is the model that lifted The Bahamas from a far flung group of fishing villages into what you see before you today.

It is in this context also that we must seek to harness the potential of tourism to address the region’s developmental problems.

To a very real extent, the problems of the region’s economies are destined to become our problems, as human desperation forces their people to attempt emigration.

My own country, The Bahamas, positioned as it is at the doorway to the largest economy in the world, continues to feel the heaviest effects of the situation in Haiti, for example.

Until solutions can be found that will stimulate economic development in the immigrant producing countries, to advance social stability and remove the incentive to emigrate, this will continue to be the case.

Long ago, we laid to rest the myth that tourism was too fickle, too unreliable, too fragile an industry to serve as a viable primary engine for national development.

How ironic now to find that it is to tourism that we must turn to escalate the process of development even in the least developed areas of our region.

In a recent message from the World Tourism Organisation’s Secretary–General, he said:
”Tourism has proved to be an effective way to address several of the Millennium Goals, especially goal Nº 1 related to poverty alleviation, but also those concerning the promotion of environmental sustainability and gender equality.
“Tourism, which is growing faster than the global economy, is spreading geographically with destinations in developing and least developed countries achieving higher growth rates than those in Europe or North America.
“Furthermore, tourism reaches even the most remote rural areas, providing often the sole sustainable development opportunity to isolated, poor communities.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, in my capacity as Chairman of the tourism committee of CARICOM, I urge us to share best practices, financial resources and I call for a synthesis and harmonization of minds to bring lobbying strength to the resolution of the common issues that face us.

We in The Bahamas have even gone so far as to share our human resources; namely your Director-General; and now the new Director of Tourism for Jamaica!

Finally, ladies and gentlemen: When we speak of a “brand new Caribbean”, we must recognize that what exists here, today in this region, represents the most powerful of marketing tools.

We have all around us here in the Caribbean a magnetic force of attraction for potential visitors.

We must get the world to know that this is a distinctive and special region.

We are a ‘sun destination’ unique and second to none.
We are unique and second to none in our flora and our fauna; this is also true of the songs we sing; it is true of the music we write and play and it is true of the stories we tell…

We are a special culture - and our people are our greatest asset.

Do not therefore overlook or disregard the significance of who we are.
 

We have not yet captured the quintessence of the brand that is the Caribbean and I charge you during this week of meeting and discussion to begin to find ways of sharing that unique beauty so that tourism in our region will be boosted to new heights.

I again urge you all to fulfill the promise of your theme: to cooperate, innovate and rejuvenate the product and build a brand new Caribbean.
Thank you very much.