Riley: Member countries benefit when they work together

SECRETARY-GENERAL of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), Hugh Riley, believes that the Caribbean region needs to come together as one and pool its resources and market the destination more effectively.

“When we come together and market the Caribbean brand, every member country who participates benefits,” he stressed.

“The last time we did this, which was right after the crisis of 9-11, business went up around 11 per cent and everyone realised there is a benefit in pooling resources. You see, individually, none of us has the size of a budget to be powerful enough to make the kind of noise to make the kind of impact out there in the competitive market place, but once we pool our resources, we see the results. That’s what we must do.”

Inconsistent progress

However, he pointed out that the recent CTO State of the Industry Conference is a continuation of the effort of pooling resources together.

According to him, individual member countries are doing what they must do.

“There is no question about that. So progress is being made, but it is spotty, it is inconsistent. What we really need to do is to have a reliable, consistent, sustainable fund, such as our competitors are doing to market themselves as destinations. We in the Caribbean must do the same.”

Diversifying economies

Riley further acknowledged that there is a long discussion going on in many places about diversifying the Caribbean economies, and finding alternative sources of foreign exchange.

“I think that’s fine, but what we have now and what the rest of the world has jumped on board to get a piece of, is this very lucrative, very resilient, very exciting tourism pie. People all over the world are really declaring by their actions that they feel they have a right to travel, and we in the Caribbean are a magnet for attracting people who feel they have a right to travel.

“We have the resources, in terms of the human resources; we have the natural resources in terms of the beauty; we have the tranquility and peace and stability to attract them. We need to be able to market ourselves effectively and clearly we have to fix the business of accessibility – air service is still an issue which always require our attention,” he said. (TL)