It would seem that the cold, drab English weather usually associated with a November World Travel Market was more than a metaphor for the activity of Caribbean business at the exposition this year.
Antigua
For the seasoned visitor, on entering the exhibition centre on day two at the Americas section at 11am, the usual flurry of country representatives too busy to make eye contact, while in overdrive on a mission to satisfy a keen and impatient prospect, was missing.
Barbados
Normally at this time at any of the traditional WTM Caribbean participants’ booth the immediate surrounding would be symbolic of a typical Caribbean market scene minus the noise.
Guyana
Sadly the showing this year at WTM was far from traditional, far from excessively busy with the hype of friendly competitive rivalry between the country representatives. There just wasn’t the full complement of countries representing the Caribbean this year.
Jamaica
The reasons for the poor showing this year at WTM should be obvious to those following the economic performance of the region as a whole and the several challenges confronting the majority of the tourism dependent states such as Anguilla, Antigua, Montserrat, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Bahamas and so on.
Veteran actor Rudolph Walker
Plagued with air passenger duty (APD) the tax on air tickets from the UK to the Caribbean which is greater than the cost of the ticket itself, many Caribbean countries are losing holiday tourism as well as Diasporic tourism to other more accessible destinations.
St Kitts
This loss of tourism revenue coupled with falling prices for export commodities on international markets; threats to rum production and so on make it understandably difficult to justify the ‘investment’ of sending a team of tourism professionals to an international travel / tourism trade show.
St Lucia
It was nonetheless sad not to see Grenada, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Montserrat, Cayman Islands, Belize and Dominica to name a few absentees.
St Vincent
However those who managed to navigate through their financial challenges with creative ways to meet the investment did represent their territories well. As usual Trinidad and Tobago stood out with their two storey structure with appearances of famed cricketers Brian Lara, Darren Ganga and Dwayne Bravo along with football stars Dwight Yorke and Shaka Hislop signing miniature bats and balls, respectively, sold for Just a Drop international water aid charity. We caught up with veteran actor Rudolph Walker for a quick chat and a laugh.
Trinidad
Though Jamaica presented a fairly good looking booth it lacked the usual flair and we were particularly dissappointed that the Olympic champions, Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir to name a few were not around to sign autographs…a lost opportunity!
Venezuela
Of course Antigua and Barbuda as always punched above their weight with a very attractive stand and the charismatic ladies man cricketing great Sir Viv Richards strutting his stuff and signing autographs.
World Travel Market on the outside…nowhere near the traffic as WTM 2011
St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Guyana, Anguilla, Bermuda, Venezuela and Barbados did quite well. One predictable participant was the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) doing their best to convince would be travellers of the value of considering the Caribbean as the destination of choice. Our only hope is that they all left the event with actual business and leads with a monetary value capable of surpassing the investment.
We understand setting up and running an exhibition booth for four days is hard work and the opportunity to enjoy oneself while at the event should not be overlooked but in these times of tight austerity it cannot be overemphasized that creativity, efficiency and productivity are key to succeeding in the tourism business. I hope our tourism professionals who attended WTM 2012 can claim these attributes and prove it.
