Caribbean tourism facing a triple whammy

www.sun-sentinel.com by Doreen Hemlock Business Writer Posted February 17 2003 These are trying times for tourism executives in the Caribbean. Just ask Edison Briesen, tourism minister for Aruba, the Dutch island off Venezuela's coast that depends on overseas visitors for its livelihood. Briesen has been working overtime to counter a triple whammy: A global economic slump that has pummeled world tourism since early 2001. A drop in U.S. tourism abroad after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And recent political turmoil in Venezuela that has slashed travel from that neighboring nation, long Aruba's No. 2 source of tourists. Yet even after Aruba managed to spend more on tourism marketing and arranged flights from new cities, the island suffered a 7 percent drop in overnight stays last year. That's about half of the average 14 percent drop in overnight arrivals to the Caribbean as a whole, but still represents a serious hit for the island economy, he said. "And now the threat of war in Iraq hangs over us as a Damocles sword," said Briesen, concerned that war may further throttle the world economy and overseas travel. No other world region feels the tourism pain as sharply as the Caribbean, because none depends so heavily on tourism. The travel industry accounts for roughly 30 percent of the Caribbean's economic activity and one in four jobs in the region of more than 30 million residents. Briesen said Aruba has tried to confront the challenges by boosting its marketing budget by several million dollars a year, even tapping the reserves of the government-owned telecom company to scrape together funding. It's spread the marketing dollars out to nontraditional markets including the U.S. Midwest, Scandinavia and Brazil. Plus, it's working more closely with airlines to lure flights from more cities, with Continental Airlines to start service from Houston in June. "It's tough," Briesen said. "Sometimes you don't have the financial means to do what you want." Still, Aruba has a somewhat easier task than other Caribbean destinations. The small, relatively affluent island of 100,000 people depends mainly on an upscale clientele, less affected by recession. The average room rate for its roughly 7,300 hotel rooms now tops $150 a night, without meals, and promotions target travelers with household incomes of at least $100,000 yearly, Briesen said. Destinations with far more hotel rooms and greater reliance on mass travel, such as Dominican Republic, have been harder hit by recession and forced to discount more. Even so, Aruba recognizes its role within the wider Caribbean, taking part in an ongoing ad campaign on U.S. TV touting the region as a single travel destination. Ideally, Briesen said he'd like to see even more aggressive regionwide marketing and more multi-destination packages, much as Europe offers. Yet short term, there's little relief in sight to the multiple challenges. Tourism analysts forecast it will take at least until next year -- or possibly 2005 -- until the Caribbean as a whole can recoup the levels of overnight stays posted in 2000. That means trying times for Briesen and his colleagues for many more months to come.