Though territories internationally and regionally are continuing to experience challenges unique to their economies, Carlos Vogeler, regional director for the Americas, World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has predicted there would be a three per cent growth in the Global Tourism industry.
"We are projecting it would be an average sustained growth of 3.3 per cent annually up to 2013."
Growth is not going to be the same for all the territories in the Americas which comprise of North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
"Obviously, North America is a much more mature market, so it's not going to grow in percentage terms as much as the others, but Central America, South America and, to a certain extent, the Caribbean, are going to grow. Maybe Central America and South America are going to grow above that world average, so they are going to grow above 3.3 per cent. The Caribbean is forecasted to grow along the lines of world growth."
Referring to growth in the Caribbean, Vogeler said airlift connectivity is limiting the region's potential. The Caribbean territories need to form closer partnerships to be able to target the emerging markets. If this is not done, the Caribbean may lose valuable tourism dollars."
Vogeler recommended that the Caribbean innovate or find new ways to respond to the modern tourist, "who is much more demanding, who is looking for new experiences and who is looking for new products."
For some Caribbean territories, marketing their destination requires a huge budget.
"The first things they should do is get together, have a more united approach to positioning as brand Caribbean in the international scene.
"Once you have in a united way with joint efforts, being able to do that and increase the market share of the whole of the Caribbean in the international scene, then (every territory) can fight for its share," he said.
There is power in numbers. This means Caribbean territories should not attempt to penetrate the international market on their own as it's "extremely competitive."
Referring to T&T and how beneficial the Latin American market is for this country, he said culturally and historically, the two territories already have deep connections. Vogeler said the two countries should use that connection as a platform for boosting the tourism sectors in the respective countries.
There are three areas which T&T and the Latin American market must look at:
�2 air connectivity
�2 the granting of visas
�2 taxation
Air connectivity must be top priority.
Vogeler said the Ministry of Tourism in T&T plans to meet with stakeholders in airline industry of the Americas to explore the opportunities available. Apart from air connectivity, there is a need to make it easy for tourists to travel in and out of destinations, which may mean looking at the removal of visas.
"Eliminate visas which, at the end of the day, sometimes visas affect tourism. The objective of the visa, in many cases, is for security reasons, sometimes for migration reasons. You have mechanisms today which might be more efficient to control rather than just issuing visas."
Regarding taxation, Vogeler said, "Taxation has to be reasonable, particularly taxation applied to air travel as it is affecting air travel very seriously and impacting prices and, therefore, it's becoming an important obstacle."
Asked what were some of the prominent challenges which countries faced, Vogeler said: "You might have to overcome problems related to security as tourism is obviously quite vulnerable to that. You might have to overcome challenges related to having a proper balance between the profitability that you want to obtain out of tourism with, the sustainability, and not seeing too much of a short-term return, but seeing more of a mid- and long-term return."
Highlighting the growth statistics, he said: "The Americas, in general, is receiving in the range of 16 per cent of the overall international tourist arrivals, so that means about 162 million international tourists."
"The (Latin American) region is receiving about 20 per cent of the world's share (of tourists), which means the position of the Americas, as a whole, is much better in terms of market share," Vogeler said.
Tourism Minister responds...
On the issue of removing visas to certain territories, Tourism Minister Stephen Cadiz said he is aware that visas can be restrictive.
"One of the things I would like to see is that we go back where we were with a cricket passport. Once you enter one territory, you should be allowed to go through the entire Caribbean after you have already entered one of the territories."
There are a number of other ways the Government can waive the visa requirement for coming into T&T. Cadiz suggested T&T piggy backs on the United States Homeland Security system to do security checks on tourists coming into T&T.
On the issue of air connectivity, he said apart from talks with India about a code sharing agreement, T&T should look to having a similar arrangement with Dubai.
"Code sharing is by far one of the easiest ways of getting additional airlift. We are speaking to India, the Emirates - we were at a routes conference in November, which is one of the largest conferences for airlift - South African Airways, and a host of other airlines, which are on the eastern side of the world, that we can in fact talk to them," Cadiz said.
Asked why the ministry targeted the Emirates, Cadiz said: "The Emirates is the main hub in their part of the world. People are using Abu Dhabi and Dubai as a hub rather than going through New York or London."
The London route, which Caribbean Airlines Ltd has, would not be tossed aside if there is a code sharing agreement between India and T&T and Dubai and T&T.
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