Be shapers and not takers, says Barbados' PM Mia Mottley at Caribbean Travel Forum
May 9, 2023
Are we prepared to be shapers or takers?
Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley posed the question at the Caribbean Travel Forum on May 9 at Sandals Royal Barbados.
Noting the Caribbean has a significant amount of savings that remain under-utilized, she said the region has not found its way to participate in the very sector that has been responsible for the greatest improvement in the quality of life for its citizens and most small-island developing states globally.
“For the most part, this modern incarnation of tourism has been driven by foreign capital, foreign airlift, foreign markets and by things that are exogenous,” Mottley pointed out. “We can decide while that is important and certainly represents the foundation on which we all stand today, it is insufficient to carry us forward. If it is not sufficient to carry us forward, at what point do we pause, reset and recalibrate? If you look at the development trends for those nations that are heavily invested in commodities and minerals, regrettably, the improvements in the quality of lifestyle have not come close to the improvements in the quality of lifestyle that the services sector has brought to most small nations globally.
“None of the markets from which tourists come are closed markets. None of them preclude you. The only thing that stops us is the only thing that stops the G7 countries from giving us a better deal for long-term financing. It is the will to do so. It is the vision in the mirror. It is the language of Marcus Mosiah Garvey popularized by Bob Marley to emancipate yourselves from the mental slavery that sees you being a taker and not a shaper. If this is vital to our lifeblood, how do we allow others to control whether the tap is turned on or off with respect to the flow of tourists. Nothing should stop you from leaving this country without agreeing to form a major Caribbean tour operator.”
Barbadian PM Mia Mottley (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Taking comfort in using a model where ‘we are takers and not shapers’, Mottley added, should no longer be an option.
“The immediate benefits to the average Caribbean person have been far greater than would otherwise have been if we focused purely on extractive industries dealing with commodities,” she said. “That has carried us as far as it probably can. How many people cried when you saw the bankruptcy of a foreign tour operator with monies owed to hotels across the region? How many people continue to cry when the pandemic came and when people who asked you to extend credit to them simply were not paid on time and to be able to allow you to settle your own obligations to bankers, staff and others. These things caused many of us to pause and think. In addition, smartphones created new opportunities in a way that, over the course of my career in public life, I have seen the shift in tourism marketing to be able to allow for a far more laser-like approach with respect to being able to have persons coming to us.
“Even though we may have a more mature destination than most and ought to be at the top of the game compared to most, what we don’t have is the flow of capital to be able to refresh and to ensure that our product is modernized as quickly and as naturally as others, like for example the Gulf States. We also need to mobilize co-operation and capital to ensure that Caribbean Airways Ltd. Cayman Airways, Bahamas Airlines, Inter-Caribbean and Air Antigua increase their level of co-operation. If ever there was a time for co-operation and partnership across countries, sectors and across almost every modality of how we function, it is now. If we continue to fail to do the difficult things to keep us resilient, then we will reap what we sow.”
Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who co-founded the Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus, was the recipient of the inaugural Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) Tourism Excellence Award.
Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett was the inaugural recipient of the CHTA Tourism Excellence Award (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
In making the presentation, CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig noted that resilience strengthens tourism.
“It is a message that is reaching all corners of the region and the world largely because of the efforts of one man, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett,” she said. “As the longest serving Tourism Minister in the Caribbean, he has placed the region at the forefront of leading international initiatives.”
The GTRCMC grew out of the November 2017 jobs and inclusive growth global conference held in Montego Bay.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Jamaica government, the World Bank Group and the Inter-American Development Bank organized that event to set up a collaborative framework for tourism moving towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The recipient of several awards including the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association Lifetime Achievement recognition for the Promotion of Sustainable Travel & Tourism presented last March, Bartlett said the CHTA honour takes the cake.
“No award can absolutely top this one today,” he said. “This is not my own. It is ours because we are the most tourism dependent region on earth and we are recognized as being the most stable tourism destination in the world. Building a conversation around resilience which is the pathway to sustainability is appropriate for the Caribbean today and I thank God for the honour of asking my little head to conceptualize a global centre which has satellites in six countries and we have eight more countries to do over the next few months. To have the world recognize tourism resilience as a critical area for not just study and consideration, but celebration is a great achievement for the Caribbean.”
In the State of the Industry address delivered on the eve of the CHTA two-day convention, Madden-Greig said the Caribbean is the fastest growing tourism region in the world.
CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig and Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett at the Caribbean Travel Forum in Barbados (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“When we look across the world, we see that international traffic is still down by 31 per cent and we are almost back fully to our 2019 level,” she pointed out. “But it is not an even recovery. Some destinations are doing better than others and we see that many destinations are already in double-digit growth. As Caribbean people, we don’t want to leave our brothers and sisters behind. So, this conference this year is about ensuring that we have growth for all.”
