Regional officials want changes to Caribbean marketing strategy


Regional officials want changes to Caribbean marketing strategy


CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC -
Regional tourism officials,
who met here last month,


called for the market strategy
for the Caribbean to be
changed in an effort to come


to terms with an increasingly
competitive environment.
 The calls came during a


Guyana gives 'green light' to three new air carriers


GEORGETOWN, Guyana,
CMC The Guyanese govern-
ment has given the go-ahead
for three new international
carriers to ply its regional and
international routes.
 Head of the Presidential
Secretariat (HPS) and
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger
Luncheon told reporters that
Cabinet authorized granting
licenses to Caribbean Air
Systems; Travelspan Guyana
Inc.; and E-JET Inc.
 "The three carriers will be
establishing escrow accounts
and performance bonds
prior to commencing opera-
tions...which are expected to
commence by the peak season
of 2006," Luncheon said.
 He said the size of the
escrow accounts lodged
depended on the range of


service to be
offered,
among other
undisclosed
factors. It has
been agreed _
that
Caribbean
Air Systems Luncheon
will provide a
regional serv-
ice to Belem, Cayenne,
Paramaribo, Port of Spain,
Caracas, Curacao, St. Maarten
and Santo Domingo.
 Travelspan Guyana Inc, a
sister company of the existing
Travelspan Inc., which cur-
rently provides chartered serv-
ices between Port of Spain
and North America, would
provide direct service to New
York, while E-Jet Inc. will fly
the Georgetown New York


and Georgetown Toronto
routes, the government offi-
cial said.
 In recent times there have
been dramatic collapses of
local carriers, with GA 2000
and Universal Airlines
folding in the last five years.
Universal is still to repay
scores of passengers left
stranded in Caribbean and
North American countries
last summer after the business
collapsed.
 Local and overseas offi-
cials representing the three
new airlines held detailed dis-
cussions with the Guyana
Civil Aviation Authority
(GCAA) before their licenses
were granted.
0


series of professional develop-
ment meetingshosted by the
Caribbean Society of Hotel
Association Executives
(CSHAE).
 President of the St
Lucia Hotel and Tourism
 Association
 (SLHTA)
 Allen
 Chastanet
 sent a strong
 message to
 investors in
 the regional
Chastanet tourism indus-
 try that they
 should heed
the recent changes in the
global travel market as a sign
that difficulties may lie ahead
for the industry.
 "Right now the competi-
tion from cruise ships is crucify-
ing us," he told representatives
from 10 hotels and tourism
associations across the
Caribbean.
 "The honeymoon afford-
ed us by 9/11 is over. Asia is
on the way back and they are
coming back stronger than


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ver before. The need for a
regional marketing campaign
s more apparent than ever
before," Chastanet said.
 The CHA director also
claimed that governments
end to shy away from the
development of the tourism
ector and focus more on local
politics. He contended that
hey needed to change their
approach to the tourism
industry so they may treat it
n export.

BRAND
 President of CSHAE
nd representative of the
Barbados Hotel and Tourism
Association Sue Springer
supported the call for a new
direction in marketing, noting
hat although Caribbean gov-
rnments have recognized the
potential economic impact of
ourism, sufficient attention
s not being given to the
industry.
 "We need to look at the
Caribbean as a brand. Some
people say I am going to Asia.
am going to the Middle East.
 I am going to the
 Far East. But people
 don't often say I
 am going to the
 Caribbean. They
 say they are going
 to St. Lucia or
 Jamaica," she said.
l. Springer said
 people need to be
 sensitized that the
 Caribbean is a brand
 as a region and then
 there will be individ-
 ual opportunities for
 each island to also
 market llicil\S ch
 for their own culture
 and diversity.
 President
 of the Caribbean
 Hotel Association
 Berthia Parle said
 the Caribbean
 Federation of
 National Hotel and
 Tourism Associations
 is the backbone of
 the Caribbean
 tourism private
 sector.
 "Our goal is
 to strengthen the
 relationship between
 national hotel associ-
 ations, CHA and its
 subsidiaries and
 explore how together
 we can drive the
 tourism private
 sector to achieve
 better results,
 enhanced perform-
 ance and more pro-
 ductivity at the
 national level,"
 Parle said.

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CARIBBEAN TODAY


May 2006