Slump spreads beyond tourism in Caribbean
By Marcelo Ballve
Associated Press
VIEUX FORT, St. Lucia — Hopes are fading for a quick rebound from the tourism slump that hit Caribbean resorts after the Sept. 11 attacks, and instead it is spreading to everything from manufacturing to offshore banking.
Associated Press
The advertising blitzes and discounts designed to lure wary travelers back into airliners and down to Caribbean beaches have failed to fill up hotels as the region enters the peak winter season.
Empty beach chairs reflect off the sunglasses of tourism industry employee Trevor James on Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. This could become the Caribbean's worst economic downturn in 20 years.
In St. Lucia, for example, beaches were virtually empty and hotels only half-full just before the holidays.
For workers like Stevenson Sevrin, a resort chef, the situation has dashed hopes he might be back at work anytime soon.
After the attacks, Sevrin was told that St. Lucia's 256-room Club Med, where he has prepared meals for 17 years, wouldn't reopen as usual in December because of plummeting reservations.
Among at least 100 people out of work in the small coastal town of Vieux Fort, he is guaranteed 60 percent of his pay through November 2002, or about $150 a week. It is barely enough to support his five children.
He awaits word that tourists are coming back to Club Med but says: "I don't have any confidence that it will open, and then what happens?"
The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and the deepening recession devastated the Caribbean tourism industry, which is largely dependent on visitors from the United States.
Shock waves from the terrorist attacks transformed what was an already slow year for tourism in the region into what may become the Caribbean's worst economic downturn in 20 years, affecting many types of businesses.
In the weeks after the attacks, the Caribbean saw decreases of up to 50 percent in arrivals compared to the same time last year. The islands already were having trouble competing with cheaper destinations like Mexico, and more accessible ones like Florida.
Officials scrambled to offer promotions and discounts. While cruise ship business is returning to normal, hotel occupancy rates are still abysmal.
Business leaders now can only hope the industry rebounds next year, as Americans search for destinations closer to home. However, despite heavy discounts, Jamaica's hotel occupancy in mid-December was 45 percent, about half of normal levels.
Islands in the 14-member Caribbean Community, which includes Jamaica and St. Lucia, plan a joint $16 million campaign on U.S. and European television promoting the Caribbean as a safe haven. However, a lack of money has delayed the campaign's start until February.
The attacks slashed profit margins of Caribbean exporters, manufacturers and shipping companies faced with lower demand from U.S. markets and higher security costs. Wire transfer companies have reported declines in the amount U.S.-based immigrants are sending home in remittances to relatives in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Oil-rich Trinidad excepted, most Caribbean economies will have negligible growth this year. Jamaica will likely have zero growth.
