CURAÇAO--This week’s Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) came to life with the sharing of plans, strategies and visions, difficulties and innovations by various regional tourism industry leaders.
JetBlue Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robin Hayes set the tone for the first full day of SOTIC on Thursday with a well-received keynote speech centring on expansion, open-sky agreements, the importance of partnership, and consideration of airline tax burdens.
This had been preceded by a number of closed meetings between CTO bodies such as the Board of Directors, the Foundation Board, the Executive Committee, and Council of Tourism Ministers and Commissioners.
While Dutch St. Maarten was not represented, French St. Martin, Anguilla and St. Eustatius were, amongst the many participating CTO member countries. However, St. Maarten hotelier Emil Lee was in attendance in his capacity as Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) President.
Lee formed part of the leadership panel discussion, a highlight of the conference. The CHTA can be considered the private-sector counterpart of the CTO.
Themed Caribbean Tourism: Growth through Innovation, this year’s conference featured a string of high-level decision-makers and pioneers.
CTO Secretary-General Hugh Riley introduced the organisation’s aim as “bringing experts together, creating unparalleled opportunity for interaction and doing business, generating ideas on ‘the what and the how,’ and creating an opportunity for delegates to sample the delights of Curaçao.”
Hayes took the opportunity to announce JetBlue flight expansion to the region and talk about how the airline makes decisions on establishing new destinations or expanding services to existing partners.
Thursday also included a first-of-its-kind broad-based panel discussion on envisioning future tourism led by public and private industry leaders, including a number of CEOs, and skill-boosting sessions that continued into Friday, before all involved celebrated what was touted as a successful conference with a closing party.
The educational sessions delved into personalised “engagement marketing,” honing in on the evolved experience economy with “creative tourism,” increasing efficiency by facilitating travel, using innovation and increasing return on investment (ROI), business opportunities and redesigning experiences. It also included a discussion led by the Caribbean Tourism Youth Congress.
The pie
Increasing the “size of the pie” through incentives rather than focusing on seemingly more reliable revenue through high passenger taxation, or focusing on inter-Caribbean competition, was one of the main points expressed in Hayes’ speech and the subsequent panel discussion on envisioning future tourism, and reiterated by CTO leaders.
According to CTO statistics for the first half of 2015, “international tourist arrivals in the Caribbean continue to be strong, with 5.8 per cent increase through June, outpacing all major regions of the world.”
Hayes encouraged the region to consider open-sky agreements to foster growth, and to further incentivise airlift growth by lowering passenger taxes, citing that these varied widely across the region. The tax burden faced by customers weighed on the airline’s route-planning decisions, he said.
American open skies fuelled JetBlue growth, he said, also indicating a similar journey for RyanAir in Europe.
To this end, Riley told The Daily Herald in an invited comment that the notion of freedom of movement continued to be discussed in some detail and that although there were obstacles to attaining an open-sky agreement, such as various jurisdictions in operation within the region, progress continued to be made; for example, through code-share agreements between airlines.
Concerning the tax burden on consumers, Hayes said, “Between US and foreign taxes and fees, travellers can easily be hit with an extra US $150 on top of their airfare. That could be an entire extra hotel night. Contrast that to the average JetBlue airfare ... $171.” This money could be spent otherwise in communities, or on extending stays.
Lowering taxes would make economic sense only with the promise of more revenue and Hayes stressed that the airline added flights in response to more demand, in line with its business model.
The airline’s Caribbean and Latin American market grew unexpectedly quickly and the region now makes up one-third of its business, with 27 airports being served and a 28th, Antigua, being added to the list in two weeks.
The concept of “growing the pie” or “getting people to the mall,” which enables them to visit unique stores, recurred at times when competition for new or existing tourism source markets was being discussed.
One present-day worry, the rise of Cuba as a destination, was dealt with in the same way, with various panel members also pointing out that Cuba does not have the capacity to draw large numbers at the moment, that the threat had been overstated somewhat, and that the island already could have been deemed competition for travellers before any recent changes.
Lee argued that there could be only two eventual outcomes: either Cuba would impact the other destinations negatively, or not. To counteract the first outcome, the Caribbean should work together collectively to grow market share and nothing would be lost if Cuba did not take significant regional market share.
Cooperation
Cooperation and disconnect in the tourism industry amongst governments, ministries, communities and the private sector was another theme identified for the region, as it relates to facilitating tourism growth.
Hayes called Barbados and Curaçao “terrific examples of destinations where we have a true partnership with the ministries of tourism and airports. When you’re weighing network decisions, it’s a whole lot easier to choose to grow in communities that truly value and understand the positive impact an airline like JetBlue can have on their market.”
Good alignment and local support in terms of marketing the destination, proactive partnerships, and offering a level playing field for the company were also JetBlue’s criteria for its destination partners. With tourism touching on various ministries, inter-ministerial relations also came into the fold.
Industry benefitting the community and their awareness of such, as well as their involvement, were reiterated to be high priority.
Lee cited a disconnect and the need for alignment in perspectives and “currencies” in the region between politicians/government and the private sector, which impacts the quality of partnership. A practical solution proposed was tying budgets to tourism performance in different communities, so that communities can say what it takes to make tourism perform, such as education or infrastructure.
The need for hard data surfaced time and again throughout various discussions, especially in terms of decision-making, prioritising and effective cooperation, particularly among entities that have very different perspectives and objectives.
The leadership panel comprised World Tourism Organisation (WTO) Director/Executive Secretary of Member Relations Carlos Vogeler; World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Vice-President of Government and Industry Affairs Helen Marano-Riley; CTO Chairman Richard Sealy; Lee; Hayes; LIAT CEO David Evans; St. Eustatius Island Council Member and Progressive Labour Party (PLP) leader Clyde van Putten; and Turks and Caicos Islands Premier Rufus Ewing.
