A few months back I found myself incredibly dismayed by the release of visitor arrival statistics because of the lack of distinction between which visitors were here for business and which were here for pleasure.
It was quite a surprise to open this morning's Royal Gazette to see that these statistics have now been released as they will enable me to paint a much more detailed picture of the state of our tourism industry.
Quite helpfully, the Ministry of Tourism has accepted my request for access to the original statistics so hopefully I'll be able to cover things more extensively.
There are many questions I hope to ask and provide some speculative answers:
- What factors are contributing to the decline in pleasure visitors?
- What factors are driving the increase in business visitors?
- How much is spent by pleasure visitors in comparison to business visitors?
- How has hotel room availability impacted the overall picture?
- Are we witnessing a case where business and pleasure visitors are competing for accommodation?
- How will the continued weakening of the US economy affect our overall tourism picture and are we seeing a comparative rise in visitors from other jurisdictions?
- What likely impacts have discount airlines had?
The Caribbean Tourism Organization was correct,the figures are showing there is a 15% drop in fly-in tourists, after you subtract the business travelers.
All those millions (approx. $270M) spent by the PLP on Tourism and the numbers prove that most of the millions were wasted.
Posted by: Sal | October 02, 2007 at 09:09 PM