Caribbean Tourism Hit Hard

This is the height of the tourism winter season for the Caribbean. But the hotels are almost empty and there are now lots of layoffs in an industry that is the main foreign exchange earner for the region. In fact, the region’s English-speaking political leadership have planned a crisis meeting very soon to discuss the situation and to find ways and means to come out of this rut. There are reports from the Caribbean that the effects of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks have severely crippled the tourism industry and that governments are approaching a state of collective panic.

"The Caribbean depends heavily on tourism since agriculture has taken a beaten and the WTO ruling in favor of Chiquita has made the banana industry go into a deep retreat. This situation with the WTC is going to have a devastating effect on these fragile islands. As former Grendian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was fond of saying "when America catches a cold we get pneumonia." "That is very true at this time," said Steve Alexander, former Grenada Counsel General.

Alexander said that all the Caribbean islands will be badly hurt by this drastic drop off in stay-over visitors and that the unemployment situation that is a direct result of the WTC disaster will hinder remittances from nationals living here that play a vital role in the economies of these islands.

"Apart from tourism this is the biggest hit. Remittances to the Caribbean from nationals living here is in the $2 billion dollar range. For small economies of scale that is a lot of money to lose and this further heightens the unemployment situation in these countries. The situation is very grave indeed," Alexander stated.

Indeed, the sharp fall off in both cruise ship and other forms of tourism has scrambled the budgetary projections of these nations and all economies are now facing heavy deficits. Hardest hit will be Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda whose economies are about 85% dependent on tourism. Tourism is also the biggest single employer in the region accounting for more than 40 percent of the local labor force with the government somewhere in the 50 percent range, and the private sector making up the rest.

This industry is exclusively responsible for foreign exchange that is used to purchase goods and services on the world market. These include medicines, food, textiles, electronics and animal feed. The region faces a health crisis, especially in HIV/AIDS, where it ranks second only to Sub-Saharan Africa. With the loss of tourism dollars this situation will be aggravated.

Meanwhile, a special memorial service was held over the weekend in Toronto, Canada, to pray for the 80 Caribbean victims who lost their lives in the WTC Disaster. The event was organized by the St.Lucian Consulate. Similar church services have been held all over the Caribbean as residents remember not only those who traced their roots to the Caribbean but all the people who lost their lives to the single most devastating act of terrorism on American soil.

And as the Caribbean worry that the Bush Administration will put its allies in this region on the backburner, there have been united condemnation of the act of terror of September 11, 2001 from governments and leaders all across the Caribbean.