Tuesday, April 23, 2013

TOURISM – A Ticking Time Bomb

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Max this is replete with misguided analytics.

If the mainstay of the economy for some time to come is tourism, then the best that can be done is to look at the available sustainable markets and segments.

After all, you must have a market to survive.

Then you look at the global economic climate and particularly those in your target market(s).

Today, the most significant economic trend in terms of "what business we are in" is growing income inequality.

This predicts that "effective demand" ... being both willing and able to buy our market offerings in Saint Lucia ... will be constrained and will depend on those with the wherewithal to buy.

This relates directly to the destination image and the tourism product (attractions).

Next we look at the segments of the markets where there is greatest sustainable effective demand.

Then we direct or incentivize developments and investments to meet the value requirements of that or those segments.

There will still be a lot of surplus labour.

Those falling into this category may well have to receive transfer payments because the outlook is still for slow or no growth in the labour markets around the world where we market Saint Lucia as a desirable tourism destination. Only certain employable people will have the ability to engage in luxury travel from our target markets.

Today, there is a trend with social media facilitating this, towards person-to-person visiting arrangements in terms of accommodation.

What economic policy implications flow from all this?

Building cheaper hotel units and plants will result in long-term excess capacity and investment losses. Does that in part explain Sandals' move to Grenada?

Lowering visiting (accommodation) costs may increase traffic for the airlines at the expense of the units with unsustainable environmental carrying costs for the country.

Our tourism planning still omits very significant data inputs and fact-based decision making.

Just like our growth initiatives without adequate measurement and comparative data, we will never get a handle on whether we are on track with our initiatives or not, long after we find ourselves way off track.

April 24, 2013 at 8:11 PM
Al Jewels said...

As usual your writing is concise, poignant and relevant. Please consider an expansion article on the merits of eco-tourism that can coexist if not sustain the small remote agrarian areas of St Lucia. And how about nature sensitv eco lodges on the perimeter of our protected natural reserves. Some international colleges participate in student field study to gain said access. The fees compare with 3-star hotels.
In closing, I thoroughly enjoy your writing.

April 27, 2013 at 6:32 AM
Al Jewels said...

May I advocate for the consideration of the Paix-Bouche / Garand and Blanchard /Desruisseaux micro regions as potential sustainable eco tourism destinations for development?
Respectfully
A fan of your effervescent writing

April 27, 2013 at 6:44 AM
Anonymous said...

Who is Al Jewels talking to up there?

April 29, 2013 at 3:03 PM
Anonymous said...

If you are not benchmarking the metrics of competitive tourism destinations you are losing out on learning what is important.

Sadly, by repeating the utter rubbish of those who do not know especially in our various media houses, does not accomplish this.

The major problem is that Saint Lucia has a long time ago stopped being a learning society.

Quite frankly, Saint Lucia does not have a learning culture in all senses of the word "learning". Unfortunately, our idiots are obviously in our very high places and their idiocy prevails!

Tourism is not a ticking time bomb. And even if it were so, it would not be such a threat, if we had a learning population as a cultural norm of the society.

The problem is not tourism. The problem is us.

A learning and adaptive culture is resilient. It makes the necessary adaptive changes.

It can meet the threats in its external environment where it has less control, and more so in its internal environment where it has greater control.

Some of our political idiots are even trying to impede the few of us who want to learn and broaden our horizons.

The ticking time bomb comes not with tourism, but with each idiot we retain and idolize, or each additional one we put in our high places and in government.

May 4, 2013 at 3:09 PM
Anonymous said...

I am writing from Canada and this is only a strong advise to you. If you want your tourist industry to survive, stop attacking the tourists, those found guilty of such behavior should be severely punished. Failure, could be very costly to the economy of your nation. Thik about it.

May 5, 2013 at 10:32 AM
Anonymous said...

From Florida; Hotel prices are way too high. Most of us cannot afford.

May 6, 2013 at 5:52 AM
Anonymous said...

The destination image of Saint Lucia as a desirable vacation and holiday location is being seriously undermined by our rampant poverty, and substance abuse fuelled by our drug lords and drug barons, some in the very seat of government at the highest level. Failure to acknowledge and recognize the truth does not make it go away nor the attendant problems that come with it.

We can deify and idolize the "big boss". However, the rest of us will suffer the price at the national level, in reduced tourism revenues, and at the personal level, income loss.

May 6, 2013 at 9:16 AM
Al Jewels said...

Anonymous, I was appealing to our honorable rep of the 4th estate-splendid author/columnist, Max. The disciplined staccato within his lines reminds me of that of the great jazz drummer who shares his 1st name. I am Gestalt / constructivist in my philosophy. Politically, I lean to the teachings of Ghandi and Dr M.L.King.
The ticking warning in Max's column can be deciphered at many levels. The power & means to involve more of the middle and working classes in the 'tourism" product is most essential for the economic viability of this national enterprise. Analogy please: Instead of a poured concrete or prefab wall we need to make many bricks so that able citizens can invest engage in the building of said product. STANDARDS , TRAINING & DISCIPLINE are an apt role for government leadership. Here are two models of training for this product (DISNEY & McDonald's) training manuals. Think attitude & efficiency, n'est pas?
The other implied ticking warning is revolutionary change. Radical change is a poor option for this product. Nevertheless, as Franz Fanon, Camus & the Premier German political philosophers have written..the 'common workers' may rise above their impingement in an unpredictable cycle.
The wake of the sugar(Cuba) & the Latin Am banana republics are still fresh. Costa Rica is the only likely model of economic conversion (however, they consistently invested in education and a non military constabulary.

May 11, 2013 at 5:11 AM
Al Jewels said...

Oh Canada,
The respect , love if not adulation that St Lucians who do know Canada have for this 'brotherly love & peace' Nation is most esteemed. Lest we forget the most relaxed open door immigration policy that closed only recently. Beane Field into Hewanora ,etc. If only Canada was instrumental in our agro industry -following Europe & WTO rulings-
Their grains and vegee production systems are robust. Green house tech is optimum.
I will forevermore be grateful to the Maple Leaf.

May 11, 2013 at 5:30 AM

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