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At Crossroads By Annan Boodram |
The pick up has also been boosted by the fact that the Caribbean remains an attractive destination for American vacationers.
Research conducted by Hall & Partners shows that the Life Needs the Caribbean marketing campaign kept the region as a top of mind destination, and kept the brand buoyant in the marketplace.
They report that this success was largely due to the creativity of the campaign, which resonated well with the American public, far better than usual advertising campaign norms. "While tourism to the region is still fraught with challenges, the situation could have been much worse if it weren't for such an effective advertising strategy," commented Ralph Taylor, chairman of the Caribbean Hotel Association Charitable Trust (CHACT).
The research revealed that the advertisements had a 92 % effect in making vacationers think about going to the Caribbean. Responses to other aspects of the campaign were also positive and well beyond the usual in the travel trade. "The advertising has helped to soften the natural decline for international destinations, " the researchers report. Since last fall, the ads in the United States were viewed more than half a billion times. "Our television campaign only represented a small percentage of the overall advertising dollars spent by the region, yet the communication level was overwhelming," Taylor points out. The campaign, which represents about 8 % of the annual Caribbean dollar spend, increased the region's awareness by 20%, while for others who did not see the ads, awareness decreased by 12 %.
But other factors have also impacted on the gradual turnaround. These include the strong partnerships that are being developed between Caribbean tourism and journalists via the biannual Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx). This forum provides an intimate atmosphere for journalists to chart their roles in promoting Caribbean tourism and in forging links with the movers and shakers in the industry.
And the annual Caribbean Week in New York adds another dimension to tourism promotion. Criticized in the past for focusing Caribbean Week in the borough of Manhattan without consideration being given to Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens where most Caribbeans live, the CTO through its Secretary General, Jean Holder pointed out that this year's inclusion of Brooklyn was the "beginning of something big".
Hopefully, this something big would be made clearer and more detailed as time progresses towards Caribbean Week 2004.
Another area in which Caribbean tourism has been criticized is its neglect of a massive potential market in the Caribbean Diaspora and African American market. While some work is now being done within the African American community the Caribbean Diaspora is still being neglected, in spite of the Diaspora's emotive attachment and its key role in the economic and social development of the region. In fact this lack of marketing to the Caribbean Diaspora is indicative of a general lack of focused marketing.
Meanwhile Caribbean tourism continues to grapple with a number of significant issues, all of which are currently on the region's front burner. One is the need for more Caribbeans to own and manage tourism products and services within the region. The election of St. Lucian, Bertha Parle to the presidency of the Caribbean Hotel Association (2004) provides a great opportunity for this issue to be tackled.
Another problem is the lack of inclusion of local communities by the private tourism service sector. Thus the sense of ownership of the tourism product by local inhabitants is not strong. And a potentially enhancing dimension of the tourism product - community tourism - is being neglected. Of course this involvement must be premised on quality and enrichment, perhaps even novelty, to foster competitiveness.
A third is need for standards to be applied across the tourism product so that it can compete effectively with the rest of the world. While tourism officials are vigorously tackling this issue the need to obtain the full participation of regional legislators, NGOs and other stakeholders cannot be overemphasized.
A fourth is the need for the political strata in the Caribbean to recognize the need for common approaches to issues that impact directly on tourism, issues such as a common tax regime and facilitating easier movement across the region. These and other issues keep coming up at almost every tourism fora within and without the Caribbean but the talk seems not to make an impression on the walk.
Yet another issue is the need to find ways of partnering with supportive entities to help fill the unoccupied rooms, especially during the off season, and thereby increase profitability especially for smaller resorts and hotels. The Caribbean Diaspora-media, business groups and other entities-can certainly play a role in this respect.
Finally focus certainly needs to be placed on strategies to capitalize on the upcoming Cricket World Cup to be hosted in the Caribbean in 2007, especially given the bad press that was received in the Australian media during the recent Australian tour of the Caribbean.
Journalist, Trevor Marshallsea, who covered the tour to the West Indies for the Melbourne Age newspaper felt that the service industry in the Caribbean leaves a lot to be desired. In an interview with the Barbados Sun, he said, "The whole service industry needs to have a look at itself. Whenever things go wrong, nobody seems particularly concerned. No one apologizes. They just tell you don't worry, things will come later on. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't."
This ad hoc manner of customer relations and troubleshooting is self-defeating and must be given urgent priority.
Current efforts aimed at establishing a brand are apparently bearing fruit. But capitalizing on this interest also means finding other ways of packaging the tourism product beyond the traditional sea, sand and sun. Geotourism is one way to go, given the variety of great topography that is the Caribbean and the multitude of opportunities for outdoor sportsmen (21 Americans alone) and environmentally inclined travelers (urban sophisticates and geo-savvys, another 37 million Americans).
Also Caribbean tourism needs to respond to the growing interest in travelers' desire to experience cultural, arts, historic and heritage activities. Study results, as reported in The Historic/Cultural Traveler, 2003 Edition, show that a remarkable 81 percent of US adults who traveled in the past year, or 118 million, are considered historic/cultural travelers. Surely the Caribbean is well placed to capture a significant portion of this market?