Regional tourism officials contemplate potential of Mexican market

– but airlift doubts persist

If the outcomes of the recent meeting of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) are anything to go by, the region’s tourist industry may stand to benefit from the ongoing immigration fallout between Mexico and the new United States administration.

Regional tourism officials reportedly concluded last week’s two-day meeting in Nassau on the note that the Caribbean was moving to take advantage of the increasing number of Mexicans seemingly inclined to send a message to President Donald Trump that they are incensed over his immigration towards Mexico by paying more attention than previously to what the tourism industry in the English-speaking Caribbean has to offer.

The prospect of a significant influx of Mexican visitors to Caricom territories already boasting a tourism infrastructure has been strengthened by what the President of the CHTA Karolin Toubetzkoy was quoted as saying was a growing inclination by affluent Mexican travellers to visit the Caribbean “since the recent fallout over immigration issues with the new US administration.”

But the CHTA official is concerned that the prospects which arise out of the opening up of the region to potentially thousands of Mexican visitors could be inhibited by airlift limitations. The problem, she said, could apply not to the Mexican market but also to potentially lucrative markets in South America such as Colombia and Brazil.

“It is clear to us that our challenge is that the airlift for many destinations is not ideal for Mexicans and other South American travellers who would now obviously prefer to bypass the USA in their travels,” she said. “The traditional gateways via Miami and Atlanta would not be suited so we need to determine how the airlift out of Mexico, and possibly Colombia and Brazil could be addressed,” she added.

As things stand there is no short-term solution to the airlift challenge. Over the years the Caribbean as a whole has not been able to attract and retain the market interest of the world’s major international airlines though some territories, notably Barbados, the Bahamas and Jamaica have been able to attract sufficient airlift to keep their respective North American and European tourism markets afloat. Major opportunities for the opening up of tourism markets in Central and South America are certain to seriously challenge existing airlift capacity.

The likely tourism opportunity that could open up as a result of Mexico’s differences with the Trump administration comes on the heels of prospects for increased travel between Cuba and Caricom countries arising out of the recent increase in travel out of Cuba.

This year’s Caribbean Travel Market reportedly attracted regional tourism operations whose representatives met with buyer companies from various countries including Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and Ireland.

Toubetzkoy said the CHTA has been engaging both government and private sector officials in the region on matters pertaining to intra-regional travel. “I think that if we embrace an open sky policy, to some extent the connectivity from Mexico between the islands would allow us to grow market share from that region, but that remains a challenge,” she was quoted as saying.

Setting aside the issue of airlift the question arises as to whether some countries in the region, including Guyana, while wishing to build a robust tourism industry, possess the infrastructure to accommodate a large influx of visitors from South and Central America. Last week President of the Guyana Tourism and Hospitality Association (THAG) Andrea de Caires told Stabroek Business that the sector may now be in a better place in terms of its relationship with the state-run tourism administration infrastructure. However, the available evidence suggests that too little investment in marketing and infrastructure could continue to rob the local tourism industry of its deserved market share.

After the Bahamas meeting the CHTA President said, “It [taking advantage of the wider hemispheric market] will also require a lot of work from the human resource perspective, as many of the English-speaking Caribbean seem ill-prepared for our Portuguese and Spanishspeaking clients.”