Bartlett urges CDB to invest more in tourism
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS including the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) are being urged by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett to better establish a window of opportunity for small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) and to invest more in tourism in the region.
Bartlett argued that a more significant contribution to national economies and its citizens can only come through improving the capacity of people to provide an enhanced visitor experience.
Bartlett’s analysis came out during his participation in a high-level panel discussion last Thursday at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the CDB in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“Even though one in 11 workers in the world work with the tourism industry and some US$7.6 trillion of tourism expenditure happened last year globally, only a very meagre 0.15 per cent of multilateral and donor agency funds go into tourism globally, that is less than a quarter of one per cent,” said the tourism minister.
NEED FOR CHANGE
This means that less than US$250 million of all the loans provided went to the sector, he revealed, adding that there has to be a change in attitude towards the industry so that more can be provided for the people who can contribute to the development of the region.
He noted that the banking system in the Caribbean is yet to come to grips with the demand for tourism and the development of the kind of portfolio that will allow SMTEs to have access to the requisite funds. This in light of the fact that the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region on earth, with over 50 per cent of GDP and one in five workers being tourism-related for at least 16 of 28 nations in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Bartlett highlighted that a 2014 report conducted by the United Nations Environment Programme showed that the Caribbean, though being the most tourismdependent region on earth, had the highest level of leakage of tourism expenditure.
“It is at 80 per cent, that is 80 cents of every dollar being leaked; meaning it goes back to pay for the cost of tourism, the visitor and the inputs of the industry that are required. In the case of Jamaica, the report said that we were 70 per cent, with 30 cents of the dollar staying here and 70 cents leaving the country,” he said.
“We therefore have to own the consumption side of tourism and build the capacity of our people to deliver on the experience and, by so doing, increase the level of retention of the tourism dollar in the economy,” Bartlett noted.
He went on to say that by providing well-needed financial support to SMTEs and those companies which play a vital part in the tourism value chain, we can build out our visitor experiences – in gastronomy, entertainment, sports, health and other areas that appeal to their passion points. This, he said, will encourage visitors to spend more; thus we will retain more of the tourism dollars and stop leakage.