Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Tourism
Source: The Jamaica Observer,
Sir Ronald Sanders, March 11, 2007
Tourism
decision-making: a matter of fact
A new study commissioned by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA)
has re-emphasised the important role that tourism plays in the
economies of many Caribbean countries, and has pointed to
opportunities for locally and regionally produced goods and
services.
The study entitled 'The
Caribbean Accommodation Sector as a Consumer of Locally Produced
Goods and Services and Contributor to Government Revenues' was
produced by Tourism Global Inc with funding from the European
Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group.
Informed decision-making about
tourism by both governments and the private sector in the
Caribbean has suffered from insufficient information based on hard
evidence.
This is the second study that
the CHA has commissioned recently on the Caribbean tourism
industry in an effort to guide decisions on the basis of knowledge
rather than hunch. An earlier study conducted by the World Travel
and Tourism Council in 2004 established the considerable
contribution (an average of 65 per cent) that tourism is making to
the GDP of the region.
The 10 countries covered by the new
study are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican
Republic, Dominica, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts & Nevis,
Trinidad & Tobago and the US Virgin Islands.
The point of the study was to
quantify what a sampling of the hotels (small and large) in the 10
countries spend on an annual basis on locally and regionally
produced goods and services, and their contribution to the
revenues of governments.
Only 54 of the 604 hotels in the 10
countries responded. Of these, the properties in the USVI and
Trinidad and Tobago were reported to be outstanding in their
co-operation.
This reticence in providing
information indicates two things: the intensely competitive
character of the hotel business in the Caribbean, and a lack of
appreciation by hotel managers and owners of the value of research
and data to their own decision-making. It is an area in which the
CHA will have to work continuously in the future to educate its
members.
In any event, despite the fact that
only 8.9 per cent of the properties responded, the study concluded
that "the sample size overall was sufficiently large to make
generalisations with a level of precision of plus or minus 5 per
cent at a 95 per cent level of accuracy".
Some of the findings are as
follows:
. 93 per cent of the utilities, ie,
electricity, water and telecommunications purchased by hotels come
from the local economy;
. 84 per cent of services
required by the hotel sector are being purchased locally;
. 74 per cent of vegetables used by
the hotel sector are produced locally;
. 67 per cent of dairy products
are sourced locally;
. 63 per cent of meats are sourced
locally;
. the hotel sector provides
employment at the average rate of 2.3 employees per room, spending
$61.1 per room per day in payroll and related costs in 2005;
. the hotel sector provides direct
entrepreneurial opportunities in at least 14 areas identified in
the survey, eg taxi concessions, water sports, spas and beauty
salons, gift and craft shops and restaurants.
But there are areas in which the
hotels could do better and which provide opportunities for local
and regional businesspeople, including fishermen, interior
designers and construction firms.
For example, in a region whose
waters are abundant with fish, only 20 per cent of hotel needs is
purchased locally. The share of the local market for fresh fruit
and eggs is even worse at 16 per cent and 10 per cent
respectively.
The hotels claim that
"factors beyond their control influence their ability to
procure locally, such as local supply chain elements - eg
availability, quality, price, reliability, and logistics and
convenience, as well as intra-regional shipment issues on a
regional scale".
This points, once again, to the
urgent need for a regional transportation policy for the efficient
and swift movement of goods within the region, and the opportunity
for reliable shipping to fill an obvious void. Equally, there is
need for Caribbean countries to develop agricultural production
and marketing plans, and to dismantle barriers to the importation
of fish, fruit and eggs from regional neighbours.
The study also revealed that
less than one-half (47 per cent) of requirements for light
manufacturing is sourced locally, even though some items are
higher than the average. For example, bakery has an 80 per cent
share of the market, non-alcoholic beverages 66 per cent, uniforms
60 per cent, and printing and stationery 56 per cent.
Expenditures on construction and
fitting out of hotel plant are extremely low with market share at
39 per cent locally and 8 per cent regionally.
The CHA should be congratulated
for its effort to raise the basis of decision-making about the
tourism industry from hunch to research. Now governments and the
private sector should join them in taking advantage of the obvious
opportunities to keep more of the tourist dollar in the local and
regional economy.
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