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Hillman
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| Joined: | Sat Feb 10th, 2007 |
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Posted: Thu Jul 10th, 2008 11:14 am |
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Counting the cost of oil: Caribbean tourism faces grim winter season amid rising air fares and capacity cuts – 09/07/08
Source: Associated Press; The Miami Herald; The Moodie Report
By Dermot Davitt
CARIBBEAN. Rising fares and airline capacity cuts will pose a major threat to Caribbean tourism this winter, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).
CTO Chairman Allen Chastanet, who is also St Lucia’s Minister of Tourism, warned: “Billions of dollars of investment are being exposed and thousands of jobs are being exposed.”
Tourism is the cornerstone of the regional economy in the Caribbean, and attracted 15 million visitors last year.
The US is the largest source market for visitors, but US carriers are cutting back their capacity to the Caribbean by -17% this year. American Airlines, which controls key routes to the region from the US, is to cut daily flights out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 93 to 51 in September. Some flights will also be cut to Santo Domingo, Antigua, St Maarten, Aruba and Samana in the Dominican Republic.
“What is going on in Puerto Rico is of major concern to us," said Chastanet. "That is really our Achilles heel at this point. There isn't anything that we have that can replace the Puerto Rico hub immediately.”
Senior tourism officials met last week in Antigua and agreed a US$60 million campaign to market the Caribbean as a single tourism destination, particularly to potential US visitors. One idea is to create a single tourism brand for the entire region.
“We are seeing things every single day that tell us this recession is deepening,” Chastanet told reporters. “[But] we believe that if the Caribbean is proactive in its marketing campaign it will go a long way to making sure we fill the flights that are left.”
The latest CTO figures for the major markets reveal mixed figures for the year to date. Overnight hotel stays in Puerto Rico (January to March only) fell -0.5% compared to the same period last year, at 403,275. Non-resident air arrivals to the Dominican Republic grew +5.6% to 1.6 million between January and April, while Jamaica welcomed 636,158 visitors, up +10.1%, in the same period. The Bahamas grew marginally (+0.5%) between January and March, at 402,691 arrivals.
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Island Woman MJ
Island Expert
| Joined: | Mon Dec 25th, 2006 |
| Location: | Culebra |
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Posted: Thu Jul 10th, 2008 11:48 am |
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Ouch. We've known it and felt it for months now, but seeing it in numbers & percentages....yi!
But then again, most of us had a very good Fourth weekend, and June was unusual in that there were higher than normal numbers of visitors. I think I met more American's coming to PR to visit relatives they hadn't seen in years than I've ever seen since being here
One guy who lives on a boat here told me that a man he met from the big island over the 4th told him that usually they would have gone to the BVI's but came here instead because of fuel costs. I guess being on a 58' Hatteras will do that...he estimated coming over from SJ cost him about 2 grand in fuel...I'm sure there were many more doing the same thing.
We'll just have to see what happens. Oh well, there's fish in the sea and chickens on the street...
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Salva lo que queda! Save What's Left!
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