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Tim Hector

What ails our tourism
and why?

(2 May 1997)

Fan the Flame, Outlet, 2 May 1997.
Online here https://web.archive.org/web/20120416011318/http://www.candw.ag/~jardinea/fanflame.htm.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.

With the best will in the world, it is difficult, very difficult to understand where Antigua’s tourism is going, if going at all.

What is beyond dispute is that there is a definitive lack of a co-ordinated policy, with clear objectives and complementing strategies.

To begin with, Antigua has great strengths. It is a very beautiful island that offers a very comfortable tropical climate year round. It is easily accessible. Geography has favoured us. Nowhere in Antigua is impassable. One analyst of Antigua’s tourism remarked that “Antigua is the perfect tourism product.”

The same set of analysts quickly followed this with the observation that “There are few archaeological and historical sites on the island”. So indeed. Beyond Nelson’s Dockyard and the Admiral’s House, there is not much that has been cultivated. I use the word cultivated very deliberately.

At Betty’s Hope there has been some effort at restoration. But from my observation there was no plan to integrate it into Antigua’s tourism product. No effort to make Betty’s Hope a viable entity. What has been done so far looks like restoration for restoration’s sake. It would seem to me, that it would be a prime matter to develop at Betty’s Hope an African cuisine.

Incidentally, African cuisine ranks only behind French and Chinese cooking in the world. A tasteful re-creation of plantation life would be a priority. The sale of arts and crafts, and curios, as distinct from a museum, should be a priority. Functions in which visitors can participate would and should be crucial, such as dancing to ole time Antigua music, doing Antigua dances down the ages. A story-telling venue recounting the stories on which we were weaned, with appropriate props. A slide show. And so on and so forth. You will have noted that I confined myself rigorously to the inexpensive but pleasurable, the instructive, and the viable. The whole idea of a Straw market, since Betty’s Hope ought to be unique, and not repeat the T-shirt business in which we seem to be drowning would be a stellar attraction. I have said enough.

Parham Town and the North East area of Antigua as a marine enhanced area, complete with aviary is a compelling necessity.

The point is I am trying, without polemics, to make us look at tourism, as it occurred here more by happenstance, and now to make a conscious effort to upgrade and transform. That is the prime necessity of this moment. We must consciously cultivate.

The fact of the matter is, that despite whatever visitor or tourist arrivals we show, however inflated by governmental, shall we say, enthusiasm, according to the OAS “Per capita visitor spending in Antigua is one-third of the Caribbean average.” That, bad as it is, is not all, by any means. The same OAS Report says that “the percentage of cruise passengers [in Antigua] who take local excursions is three fourths of Barbados.” On top of all that “expansion in room inventory at a time when occupancy rates are low could result in a shift toward “mass tourism,” bringing a fall in room prices, and a further reduction in tourist expenditures.”

Naturally that downward shift “to mass tourism” with a fall in room prices, and the consequent and virtual disappearance of the 10 per cent service charge paid to workers, has not only led to a further decline in tourist expenditures, it has made hotel workers feel cheated, with the resultant effect on the quality of service offered. That decline in worker attitude, due to the sense of being cheated, is one of our most serious problems. But it is by no means intractable.

Antigua shifted from an up-scale destination to “mass tourism” without thought or forward planning, and the infrastructure cannot, repeat cannot, bear the weight of mass tourism. And worst so, with declining tourist expenditure. Returns from tourism, in terms of public revenue are not meeting its impact on infrastructure.

I want to give some hard facts by way of statistics.

The following conclusions have been drawn by the experts, and not me alone from the above figures. First and foremost, Antigua is not obtaining the market share to be expected based on the availability of rooms.

Secondly, the visitation of cruise passengers indicates that fewer cruise ships are stopping at Antigua than other islands.

Though not immediately discernible from the figures above, Antigua has few attractions which allows it to benefit from cruise passengers.

Indeed, arrivals to Antigua and Barbuda increased by 6.1 per cent in 1993–94. Then decreased by 11 per cent in 1994–95; and then decreased further by an additional 18 per cent since hurricanes Luis and Marilyn.

By contrast during the same period St Lucia saw an increase of 12.6 from 1993–94, more than twice as much as Antigua and Barbuda and a further 5 per cent increase, while Antigua decreased by 11 per cent! St Lucia increased by 7.4 per cent while Antigua declined by 18 per cent, in the 1995 post hurricane period.

The Cayman Islands had a 18.9 per cent increase in 93-94 more than three times Antigua’s 6.1 per cent increase over the same period and in 1994–95 Caymans increased again by 6.35 per cent which Antigua declined by 11 per cent. The figures, the bare figures tell their own tale.

I have relied on the hard facts, indisputable facts, to show that Antigua and Barbuda, is losing market share in relation to its immediate competitors. I did not add St Maarten, which had a 12.6 per cent increase in 1993–94, compared to our 6.1 per cent for Antigua and 7.4 per cent increase compared to our 11 per cent decrease!

The point however ought to be abundantly clear. Namely, Antigua and Barbuda is losing its market share of the tourism market at an accelerating rate.

The point ought to be clear also, that Antigua is a beautiful island which does not distinguish itself from its competition. Nothing, simply nothing, is cultivated as attraction. The product undermines itself, and is undermined by the lack of cultivation.

Added to that, Antigua is a high cost destination, even its duty free shopping is not competitive with other competing destinations.

Dear Reader, you will have noted that I have blamed no one, cast no aspersions on a single soul. I have stated the facts, almost baldly if not blandly. But somebody or bodies must accept responsibility for the parlous state of Antigua’s tourism. I leave that to you, Dear Reader, to ascribe responsibility.

What is beyond argument, is that we, as a nation, cannot continue to fiddle while Rome burns at an accelerating rate. Tourism, after all, accounts for some 70 per cent, directly and indirectly, of our gross domestic product. It is full time, rather the time is overdue for a rescue mission.

Maybe I should give another set of figures. So that we can keep focused on hard facts, hard-nosed facts, if you prefer.

While no numbers have been provided by Antigua, that in itself tells a tale. It tells a tale of harum-scarum. We keep no figures and do not know what we are doing and why. We have no measure. We are stumbling in the dark after 40 years of tourism! I will say no more lest my bristling anger overflows onto the page. We are, after all, analysing so we must keep cool.

The figures in the table above proves convincingly that the success of the Cayman Islands is due to the tremendous advertising campaign. St Lucia has also been extremely effective in its promotional efforts.

Though I sought to be impersonal here and let figures do the talking, it would be unfair of me, to leave the impression that the Tourism Department here failed, though this is implied. People cannot work without tools and means. They cannot promote without money. Antigua and Barbuda hides its promotional expenditure because it is so paltry. The monumental waste and corruption we revel in, plagues us in that there is little or no promotion. No planned advertising campaign. No co-operation between private and public sector in a planned programme. The result of this is there for all to see. Collapse of roads. Collapse in terms of requisite promotion and advertising. Collapse in terms of developing sites and attractions for tourists and residents alike. We have become a beautiful bore. Decline was inevitable. Fall follows decline as in the Decline and Fall of Rome.

However, in this awful drought and drift, it must be said that our Tourism Department has conjured something out of nothing, and kept us at least afloat, at nose level, when we ought to be sinking. But we cannot, cannot continue like this. Again my personal anger held in check by this rigorous analysis, threatens to overflow onto the page.

So let me quote another report on Antigua’s tourism, for I am relying on objective evidence. The Report states:

“Litter is an ever-present problem that greatly detracts from the beauty of the island. There are several areas around St John’s that are full of litter, particularly plastic bags and other bio-degradable trash. Junk cars dot the landscape. With vegetation growing through the roofs or around the wheels, it is obvious that these have been long abandoned.”

Long abandoned indeed. Persistent. Ignored. We live with it as though the junk cars were in themselves an attraction. We turn vice into virtue. Like the stray dogs and larger animals which roam the land often endangering human life. We see wrong, and make our beds and lie down with wrong. Till wrong becomes the norm!

It needs to be said though that Mr Lionel Michael, Chief Health Inspector, has been and is an exemplary public servant. In spite of his efforts, herculean efforts of himself and his department, the litter literally overwhelms the best efforts. It is an inadequacy of equipment, not personnel. That crisis reflects and results from an over-burdensome national debt, accumulated on un-economic projects, which leaves us desperate in all areas. Sanitation is now an emergency, and needs emergency funding, in order to ensure the viability of our tourism.

There is no good reason, none at all, why the society in town and country cannot be mobilised to remove the junk. There is no good reason, why we must have all these animals, pigs, goats, cows, roaming free as though town and country were one big pasture or zoo. Human life has been lost. People have been maimed, disabled for life. And yet we turn a blind eye. I am certain, beyond certitude, that lands could be allocated for the management and improvement of livestock which roam the land. Such a development is long long, overdue. Yet we temporise.

And I will not duck. I will face the problems squarely. A couple of hoteliers have told me that I am forever defending vendors. That I will never cease to do. I have had close relatives and dear friends who were vendors of one kind or another. Be they tin-smith or market-seller. I know, that small business is the vertebra of an economy.

Yet I am prepared to face the fact, the hard fact. It is this. Harassment of tourists by vendors is a common complaint by tourists and hoteliers. I have been called to bear witness that at more than one all – inclusive hotel, the children of tourists are preyed upon by vendors to obtain food and drink at the bar for them. It is a vexing and vexatious matter. It undermines the hotel and the industry. Rules have to be enforced, fairly and consistently, without favour. But an unruly society at the top, becomes unruly at the base. It is not an accident that we have a Vendors Act and Litter Act, and both are observed only in the persistent and daily breaches. It is the sickness of a sick society.

”Frequently” a tourism report on Antigua states “Vendors who are assigned a location on the beach, illegally roam the beach to hawk their wares. Exchanges often become abusive and harassing. Some vendors have built booths on hotel property. Legislation passed to control their placement is not being enforced by the government.” That is not me. It is the Report, done by New York University and The Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Management. They said it. The government does not do what it is required to do by law. And I add, the government itself is lawless and cannot justly enforce the laws. That is the long and the short of the matter. The remedy is obvious.

I am going to quote the prestigious New York University Report again, because I insist on objective evidence. The Report, submitted on January 28, 1997 – you will note that I keep up with the latest – had this to say:

“Senior Executives in the private sector say they do not attend the various tourist industry wide meetings. Little progress is seen; many ideas are advanced, but serious initiatives are not undertaken. Solutions to the problems raised are not forthcoming. These executives are willing to work with the government agencies to promote Antigua as a destination of choice. Frustration is rampant among interviewees, with the general consensus being that the government does not take its major industry seriously.”

he government does not take its major industry seriously!

I did not say it. It is so manifest that every and any investigation reveals it. Namely “that the government does not take its major industry seriously.” There is no escaping that fact. Turn every which way, bob and weave as you might, there is no escaping the fact what ‘the general consensus’ is. Need I repeat it again as coming from an objective source? No I need not.

That is why the government is after grandiose projects in tourism. It is so doing, to conceal its abject failure. The grandiose they think will impress at the macro level. But at the micro level, the persistent problems will continue to undermine Antigua’s tourism, and we will continue to lose market share at an accelerating pace.

Dear Reader, I need not conclude, the conclusion is at once implicit and obvious, but based on hard-nosed facts and objective evidence. A new dispensation is called for to set tourism and therefore a diversified national economy on its feet, rather than now, on its head.

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