| Tourism group says radical improvements needed | | Print | |
| Thursday, 29 July 2010 11:48 | |||
 The Turks and Caicos Islands must take radical measures to reduce crime, make it cheaper to fly to the islands, and improve the immigration service if the country is to protect and grow its most important source of income, the Tourism Working Group says in a candid report released July 23. The best approach to marketing the TCI should include all stakeholders, encourage the community to become involved in tourism and promote all the islands, the group said. The country also needs to rethink its concentration on high-end tourism, which leaves out many other tourists and ignores the true nature of many of the other islands. In order to keep the TCI “beautiful by nature,” the country needs to make a “seismic” change in its attitude to protecting the environment, the group said. The country should also promote the entire range of activities for tourists, including golfing, diving, boating, fishing, weddings, honeymooning and fine dining, the group said. Other important areas include culture and heritage tourism and ecotourism. To get the job done, the group recommended the creation of a new Tourism Authority, which would be run by seasoned sales and marketing professionals chosen by a board of directors including eight from the private sector and four from government. The current Tourist Board would then be responsible only for managing a programme for enhancing awareness and educating the population on tourism. In that role, the board should be renamed the Tourism Regulatory Board or absorbed into the Tourism Ministry, the group said. To fund the new authority, the current 11 percent accommodations tax would be split — the authority would get 2 percent for operations and the government would get 9 percent. Under the group’s proposal, the authority would have 14 employees the first year and add seven more by the third year, with total salaries and benefits of $1.3 million in a total budget of about $4 million. The Tourist Board’s budget had climbed to nearly $15 million in 2007-08. In August 2009, His Excellency the Gov. Gordon Wetherell revamped the old Tourist Board that had spent its way into $8 million of debt. He then appointed the Tourism Working Group, headed by lawyer and businessman Clive Stanbrook, to recommend the best relationship between the government and the private sector for successfully promoting tourism. The group included Art Pickering, Arthur Been, Brian Lightbourne, Clayton Thomas, David Bowen, Julia Williams, Kingsley Been and Mark Durliat. The group contacted all major stakeholders and sent questionnaires to more than 350 travel agents. The group met 12 times, while individual members and sub-groups held a number of other meetings with various stakeholders. Their 29-page report said the country needs to prove to the tourism world that it is doing something to combat rising crime. “At the very least, this should include the immediate lifting of restrictions on police recruitment and funding and absolutely must involve the rolling out of an emergency programme designed to stamp out crime in the community,” the group said. Another hindrance to tourism is high air fares. Peter Dolara, American Airlines senior vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, told the group that the high prices were result of a small population, a small number of hotel rooms (2,500) and a lack business travelers. “The working group were left wondering whether if the Cayman Islands and Bermuda had lower prices because of the business travellers associated with their finance and insurance industries, are prices to the TCI for scheduled flights higher because the airline had supply contracts with Beaches and Club Med for annual bulk seating deals? Or, do American Airlines, US Airways, Delta Air Lines all realize that the destination’s (high-end) hotel room inventory and overall popularity offers an opportunity for a carrier to reap substantial profits through excessive ticket pricing?” The country must encourage other carriers to introduce routes from the northeastern U.S., and the Tourism Authority must actively market in that region, the group said. The airport expansion project will also help bring more long-haul flights to the TCI and make visitors’ experience more pleasant. Click HERE to read the working group’s report.
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