Caribbean: Tourism highlights differences on integration

by Lloyd Nicholas

Nassau, 4 Jul 2001 (IPS) - The fun, sun, sea and sugar white beaches of the Caribbean have long been marketed to European and North American visitors as heaven on Earth. At this week’s summit of regional leaders, however, tourism is highlighting differences over the future of Caribbean economic integration.

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, incoming chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and host of the 22^nd annual CARICOM Summit here, is urging his 14 fellow heads of government to speed efforts to promote the Caribbean as a single destination in order to generate gains from economies of scale.

“For the purposes of Caribbean tourism, we need to think of the Caribbean region as a single nation. Every study shows that warm weather vacationers are largely destination collectors,” he says. “No matter how much they enjoy an experience in one warm weather destination, vacationers yearn to explore another before returning to the prior experience. We must, therefore, cooperate to ensure that such vacationers do their exploring among Caribbean destinations.”

However, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines and CARICOM’s newest head of government, is assailing his counterparts for not making the region a friendlier place for people whose home countries are washed by the Caribbean Sea.

“The intra-regional traveller is by and large looked upon with suspicion by immigration authorities of sister CARICOM territories,” Gonsalves says. “It is even more difficult than in colonial times for a CARICOM national to enter the country of another.”

“While Canadians are welcomed with open arms in Barbados, St. Lucians and Vincentians are generally treated as unwanted strangers at the gate. Meanwhile, Rastafarians are discriminated against by every customs and immigration officer in practically every country of the region, possibly, save and except Jamaica, and Barbadians are caricatured as smart men who must be watched closely at ports of entry,” he adds.

“All this is totally unacceptable. Neither CARICOM nor some other form of union could survive these indignities and irrationalities.”

Intra-regional travel accounted for 77% of all tourist arrivals in 1995, the World Tourism Organisation says. By 2020, the figure is expected to fall to 62% as more local people opt to travel out of the Caribbean.

Officials at the summit appear to agree that single-destination marketing - which would allow tourists to island-hop within the Caribbean without having to seek separate visas for each country visited - will be vital to ensure that the Caribbean continues to post the fastest growth rates for tourism in the Americas. The region faces the prospect of increased competition from Cuba, which anticipates tourism growth of about 9.2% per year.

But they remain divided on whether to allow the free movement of citizens from CARICOM states, a key component of the ongoing drive toward a Caribbean-wide Single Market and Economy (SME).

Gonsalves, a former professor, is an impassioned advocate of abolishing passport, residency and work-permit requirements for Caribbean nationals - the first step in what he calls “people-to-people integration.”

This position enjoys support from segments of the business community. Cable & Wireless, the telecom operator, plans to set up call centres throughout the region. Errald Miller, chief executive of the company’s Atlantic and Caribbean unit, says the free movement of workers would help.

Ingraham, however, has reservations. “The free movement of people aspect of the SME would have serious social and political implications for the Bahamas, given its unique position as a target for massive unregulated migration for many countries, not only in the Caribbean,” he says.

“If and when the time comes for the Bahamas to accept full or limited membership of the SME, it is my hope and desire and expectation that sister CARICOM states will consider the issue of the Bahamas’ membership in the SME with pragmatism and in the context of the Bahamian reality,” he adds.

The Bahamas has not yet signed on to the SME, although Ingraham says he is committed to its goals. Officials here are monitoring the impact of a recent CARICOM initiative that has loosened travel restrictions for university graduates in hopes that the arrangement can help meet business demand for a mobile workforce without inviting massive inflows of undocumented workers.

Gonsalves acknowledges that the measure is a step in the right direction but warns that because it benefits only the educated elite, “useful as this is, it has regrettably strengthened the impression in the mind of ordinary persons that this integration business is not to be taken seriously.”

CARICOM leaders also are being urged to speed their efforts to ratify, set up, and fund a Caribbean Court of Justice. The court would preside over regional treaties issues relevant to the SME. Members are discussing setting up a trust fund, to be administered by the Caribbean Development Bank, to insulate the court from political interference. Summit documents estimate the court will need some $22 million in its first five years. – SUNS4930

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