Caribbean tourism is facing the double jeopardy of deeply declining international arrivals at the same time that environmentalists are warning that winning back the numbers could result in irreversible damage to the fragile ecosystems, infrastructure and human culture of the region. The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) says that starting in 2008, declines have been experienced in major tourism destinations, such as Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda, Puerto Rico and a number of other Caribbean destinations. The pattern, however, has not been consistent, increasing and declining in seasons and between stay-over and cruise ship visitors through the Caribbean Sea. In the instance of destinations, such as T&T, the decline in arrivals has been constant and consistent: T&T 14.2, Anguilla 14 per cent, Guyana 23 per cent, St Vincent and the Grenadines 15 per cent during 2010. Overall, occupancy levels at Caribbean hotels have been in decline since 2008 when the arrivals dropped by three per cent compared to 2007.
"From a revenue point of view, they (the CTO) have stated that in 2009 the spend (by the tourist) was less than 2008 and they expect that in 2010 that would be very much the same situation again," said Alex Sanguinetti, director general of the Caribbean Hotels and Tourism Association, to the Business Guardian last week at the 12th Annual Sustainable Tourism Development Conference in Bermuda. Closer to home, Tobago, with its significant dependence on the tourism industry, has over the last two-and- a-half-years experienced a dramatic fall in international arrivals to an annual average of 35,000 to 38,000 from a 80,000 high in 2005. The saving grace for Tobago has been that visitors from Trinidad have increased from 300,000 to 800,000 in 2010, said Orville London, Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly. The tourism infrastructure in Tobago is not essentially constructed to reap maximum benefit from local tourists, most of whom stay at guesthouses, bring their cars on the ferries and do not patronise the hotels, tour guides, taxi operators and fishermen. "That is proving to be a challenge," says London.
He, however, makes the point that the average spend of the visitors from Trinidad is higher than that of the foreigners. Among the major reasons for the decline in visitors coming to Tobago are the international economic recession, the consequent abandonment of the Tobago route by airlines such as British Airways, the imposition and the threatened increase in the level of the airport passenger duty charged by the British government for passengers leaving on aircraft from the United Kingdom, and the absence of five-star type hotels on the island since the closure of the 200-room Tobago Hilton in 2008.
"We not only have to get the numbers up, but we have to get them up in relation to the high-end tourist," says London. He says the island may compete favourably in the number of visitors, "but we are not doing well with regard to the front end of the plane compared to Barbados and St Lucia." There are no easy solutions. The theme of the conference: Keeping the Right Balance Rising Above the Numbers, indicates the challenge for the hotel industry, which now has an average 64 per cent hotel occupancy, so that one-third of the plant remains idle post-winter. This drives the need to fill rooms, even at the risk of opening the door to environmentally unsustainable projects and practices.
Costas Christ, editor-at-large of National Geographic Traveler, believes the key is for Caribbean tourism to look to a new model of sustainable tourism to attract investors to construct the kind of tourism plant and product that "will leave the culture and their environment in tact." Christ said many previously natural and pristine destinations in remote areas of the world have become overrun with tourists seeking to find a place on a beach and the ability to tour native villages. Hotelier Sanguinetti agrees there has to be a balance. He admits that "whatever we do we must ensure that it does not harm the infrastructure and impact negatively on the environment." The CHTA director general acknowledges there are hotel and other tourism plants which are leaking inadequately treated sewer into watercourses and increasing numbers of tourist arrivals could negatively affect the environment. He is also adamant that "environmentalists must not be allowed to hold up projects for ten to 15 years and when approved the cost has become horrendous."
He says the hoteliers are working in partnership with the CTO and approaching the European Union to seek assistance for such projects, "but we agree that there needs to be more self-discipline in the industry." Chief Secretary London says the THA has concerns about wastewater management in Scarborough coming out of hotels and homes, a discussion which has been ongoing for 25 years. He notes the cost of fixing the problems is US$100 million. "Our environment cannot sustain mass tourism. We cannot compete with the likes of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic," says London.
While he acknowledges there could be problems with increasing the number of tourists generally in the Caribbean environment, Bermuda's director of Tourism, Billy Griffith, said: "There is evidence that there is room for a lot more growth in Bermuda in terms of our tourism numbers to positively impact our economy."
For a young destination such as Guyana, with its pristine natural environment as its major selling point, the government intends to go forward cautiously "grounded in protection of the environment and developing tourism in a symbiotic manner with the environment to sustain culture and resources," says Guyana deputy director of Tourism, Tamecka Singh. "Any indigenous communities adhere to carrying capacities numbers. Some tribes take only three tours per year into the interior, with a limit of ten to 15 persons. They are ensuring they are not negatively impacted by western culture," she says. The question of striking the right balance "is at the essence of discussion on the issue of sustainability," says Hugh Riley, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation. "How to sustain ourselves and thrive economically and not destroy the very asset we use as a magnet to draw people to our countries is a real challenge," admits Riley.