At FCCA opener, a sobering call for Caribbean partnership

St. Lucia Prime Minister Alan Chastanet made a plea for unity and partnership in the Caribbean—across governments and with the cruise industry—to meet the challenges.

'It can't be business as usual'

Addressing Caribbean heads of state, tourism and port officials and cruise line leaders at the opening session of the FCCA Conference & Trade Show in San Juan, Chastanet was blunt: 'We have problems. It can't be business as usual.'

Though event host Puerto Rico has made great progress in hurricane recovery—in no small part due to the rapid return of cruise tourism—Chastanet said the region's key homeport can't have full recovery without other destinations getting back on their feet.

Puerto Rico got $36bn in help from the US, and the US Virgin Islands $7bn. Yet St. Maarten is still struggling.

Infrastructure investment is lacking

If he were a cruise executive, with 40% of his revenue coming from the Caribbean, Chastanet would be worried because it is the world's most indebted region.

'We're not covering enough costs to invest in infrastructure. Our education systems are not keeping up with the demand. And we are not acting as if we are so dependent on tourism. We're not seeing the level of innovation we ought to see.'

Chastanet recognized the success of the cruise lines but said: 'The fact is, your partners are not doing so well. The levels of revenues that we're generating are not sufficient to pay for infrastructure requirements we have.'

Cruise facilities not used year-round

The Caribbean is a year-round destination. Yet 'We in the Eastern Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, have not done a good enough job of creating a compelling reason why people should come here in the summertime. You cannot keep building all these facilities without being able to use them on a year-round basis,' Chastanet told the FCCA audience.

He called for dialogue and unity, adding that cruise tourism and land-based tourism are interdependent. One can't exist without the other.

'We need each other. How come we don't have a regional tourism marketing campaign?' he asked.

Not one of the Caribbean's nine central banks has a tourism economist. This is 'amazing,' in Chastanet's view, given that 85% of the region's foreign exchange comes from tourism.

And banking reforms are needed. It takes four to five years to get projects started.

The United Nations' Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development classifies need based on GDP, which doesn't help the Caribbean in a crisis, because some countries have good middle-class income. Chastanet thinks the threshold for aid and development funding should be based on vulnerability instead.

Threat of rising sea level

'We thought a 1.5-degree rise in temperature was a disaster,' the prime minister said, referring to global warming. The most recent predictions, however, see a 2-degree increase that would trigger the sea level rising three feet.

'That means 80% of the Bahamas will disappear. Many of the ports and many of the cities we have in the Caribbean aren't going to be around. The key is, we know that in advance. So what can we do to build the resilience to make sure we'll be around, and you have a destination to sell?' he challenged the FCCA audience.

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