Basseterre, St.Kitts (Team UNITY Communications) - Recent remarks by Tourism Minister, Richard Skeritt, must now make it clear that the illegitimate Douglas regime’s adhoc approach to tourism development is hurting the poor and middle class and will only lead to a worsening situation unless the electorate changes the government.
Ricky Skeritt has presided over a tourism plant that it is lagging behind in terms of stay over tourist arrivals and tourism expenditure. From a high of an average of 140, 000 stay over tourists in 2005/06 and expenditure of $327 million and $355.45 million respectively in 2005/06. According to the ECCB our country is struggling to attract 105, 000 stay over tourists in 2012.
Additionally in 2012 we managed a mere $256.3 in tourism expenditure. Skerritt told us that the critical metric is tourist expenditure not arrival numbers. Either way we are failing. And people are suffering hardships from this failure of tourism strategy and policy.
Our tourism expenditure in 2012 is $100 million lower than it was in 2006. This is an abysmal failure. The table below shows the comparative performance in tourism in the OECS. St Kitts and Nevis ranks second to last in tourist expenditure in 2011 and 2012 (excluding Montserrat).
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TOURISM PERFORMANCE IN OECS
|
NO
|
COUNTRY
|
TOURIST EPENDITURE EC$M 2011
|
2012
|
TOTAL ARRIVAL
2012
|
STAYOVERS
2012
|
|
1
|
Anguilla
|
$301.70 M
|
$304.11 M
|
129,391
|
64,698
|
|
2
|
Antigua
|
$841.77 M
|
$861.30 M
|
842,693
|
246, 926
|
|
3
|
Dominica
|
$313.46 M
|
$307.17 M
|
354,189
|
74,144
|
|
4
|
Grenada
|
$315.34 M
|
$328.27 M
|
361,673
|
112,335
|
|
5
|
Montserrat
|
$14.01 M
|
$18.95 M
|
12,127
|
7,310
|
|
6
|
St. Kitts & Nevis
|
$254.06 M
|
$256.39 M
|
635,426
|
104,240
|
|
7
|
St. Lucia
|
$865.51 M
|
$910.65 M
|
931,222
|
306,801
|
|
8
|
St. Vincent
|
$247.55 M
|
$254.20 M
|
199,840
|
74,364
|
Unless we grow the stay over arrivals significantly we will continue to see our hotels recording less than 50 percent occupancy. No hotel can survive for long with half of its rooms empty. That is why they have resorted to student accommodation which means that they are charging very subsidized rates to meet the students’ budget. They will also suffer higher wear and tear of their properties.
Any serious Minister of Tourism knows that it is unacceptable to allow our hotel experiences to become adulterated .The consequences are serious because the hotel experience becomes bachanalized. The expectations of student guests are different to the regular business and leisure guests, and so we enter a market for lemons where the lowest denominator holds. In this situation the destination cannot properly live up to the expectation of a high end destination and our market plan is at odds with reality. The failure of this government to grow the stay over market which accounts for 95 percent of tourism receipts is the gravamen of the problem.
As with the bankruptcy of the country with the pain of haircut and write off undermining the financial viability of the creditors of the government, so too the people who invested in expanded homes and apartments to cater to the visiting student accommodation market now find that they cannot compete with the hotels which would have underpriced them with a more comprehensive offering to the visiting student. These people with their apartments in Bird Rock, Mattingley, Earl Morne, Frigate Bay and elsewhere are being made worse off; several are in arrears with their mortgages and the government’s chief tourism talker Richard Skeritt accepts the status quo.
Team Unity will produce a tourism master plan that will see stay over arrivals grow steadily amounting to at least 150, 000 stay over arrivals in the next 5 years. Our policy will encourage a diversified tourism product with scope for local people with their guest houses, apartments, etc. to share and benefit from the growth and prosperity which we will bring to the sector. We will work in concert with our stakeholders to ensure shared prosperity and we will not accept mediocre tourism performance. We will develop stronger inter-sectorial linkages with tourism, manufacturing, crafts and culture and agriculture.
Dr Harris said, “Something is wrong in tourism when nearly all of our hotels (Jack Tar, Sugar Bay, Bird Rock, Marriott/Angelus, and Frigate Bay Beach) have resorted to student housing. This means more hotels are in the student market than there are those which are out (OTI, Ottleys Plantation, Timothy Beach).Something is wrong when we lose out on Golden Lemon, Rawlins Plantation our special boutique type hotels. Something is wrong when in our major hotel workers are getting three days work. Something is wrong when the local hotels are crying out for assistance and an uncaring government does not respond. Something is wrong when our adhoc marketing and promotion efforts lead to more airlifts and less tourists.
We need a change in policy, a change in direction and a Unity Government.”
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
