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Caribbean Tourism Report Q1 2009
Market |
Travel |
Report Type |
Market Research |
Country |
Caribbean |
Published |
18 March 2009 |
Number of Pages |
50 |
Download |
|
Immediate |
|
Publisher |
Business Monitor International |
Q1-Q3 Arrivals Lacklustre With most countries having reported figures for the first three quarters, it appears that tourist arrivals to the Caribbean continued to decline in the second half of 2008. Of all countries reporting arrivals data, only 13 reported year-on-year growth. Of these, the highest growth was recorded in Curacao, where arrivals in January to September rose by 30.9% year-on-year. However, this was unusual, with most growth being in the 1.0-5.0% range, well below the Caribbean’s usual growth rate of 8-10%.
Of those countries experiencing declines in growth, Guyana suffered the sharpest decline, with arrivals slumping 25.8% year-on-year. Although in part this reflects a statistical rebound from 2007, when the hosting of a Cricket World Cup game bolstered visitors to Guyana, it is also symptomatic of slowing arrivals to the region as a whole. Other countries suffering were St Vincent and the Grenadines, with arrivals falling by 10.4%, and Anguilla, with a decline of 10.8%. Even traditionally strong performers such as Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago experienced declines, of 1.5% and 1.2% respectively.
Looking ahead, arrivals are likely to continue slowing in 2009. Given the dependence of the Caribbean economies on tourism, this will have a significant effect on economic growth and job creation in the region.
Focus On Trinidad and Tobago Of all the islands in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago is one of the best placed to weather the downturn in tourist arrivals in 2009. Although the country experiences a large number of tourists, primarily destined for the smaller island of Tobago, the economy also has a well-developed oil and gas sector. Given the attractiveness of this off-shore sector for development and international investment, this provides some economic insulation from the negative impact of downturns in other sectors of the economy. In terms of the economy, the government is seeking to maintain recent momentum in the tourist industry, by using some of its oil and gas revenues to fund public infrastructure programmes and soften the tax burden. This should provide some relief for the industry, although tourist arrivals are only likely to improve again in 2010, when the global economic recovery picks up pace.
Air Jamaica Seeks Strategic Partner Struggling airline Air Jamaica is seeking a strategic partner to provide much-needed investment for the company. Air Jamaica, which was nationalised in 2004 following years of poor financial results, is scheduled for divestment in March 2009, lost US$170 million in FY 2007 and is predicted to lose a further US$200 million in 2008. No companies have yet expressed an interest in purchasing Air Jamaica, underlining the poor timing of efforts to sell off parts of the company. It is likely that the government is seeking to sell off Air Jamaica at this point rather than shoulder the burden of another year of poor performance, at a time when the government is already struggling to cope with the financial impact of the global economic downturn. However, if no potential partner presents themselves by March, the government will likely be forced to shelve the divestiture and seek to return to market once the economic conditions have improved.
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