Saltar d'illa al Carib? L'Aràbia Saudita pot ajudar!

Jamaica Saudita
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Flying and connectivity between islands in the Caribbean may change forever with a little investment from Saudi Arabia.

A frustrated Mr. Donovan White, the Director of Tourism for Jamaica, just returned from attending the Mercat de viatges al Carib in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

He tweeted: “A big part of why trade and doing business in the Caribbean is so hard is the complete lack of air connectivity between islands. It has taken me 8 hours to travel back from Puerto Rico to Montego Bay instead of a one-hour hop between the two islands.”

Connectivity to travel between Caribbean islands has stopped the Organització Turística del Carib and other initiatives from bringing the region together for decades.

It has also stopped or made travel by citizens and cargo difficult, expensive, and sometimes impossible.

Delegates from Barbados and many other islands that attended the recently concluded CTO IATA conference in the Cayman Islands had to obtain an expensive and sometimes difficult-to-obtain US visa, fly to Miami first, and spend a night before catching a flight home.

An initiative headed by Jamaica and Saudi Arabia brought tourism ministers from the Bahamas, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and Guyana together to virtually meet with HE Ahmed bin Aqil al-Khateeb, the influential and super-wealthy Minister of Tourism from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

With its money, global influence, and newly established global initiative and fame, Saudi Arabia may be able to not only establish the Caribbean as a new market for Saudi and Gulf travelers but also for Caribbean citizens to explore the newly opened world of Saudi Tourism and beyond.

The Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett told eTurboNews: “Last week, the Saudi Minister and his team had a virtual bilateral meeting with the team and me, and agreed to invite five key ministers from the Caribbean to Riyadh in November during the WTTC Global Summit. We will meet with mega airlines of the GCC.”

Mega airlines could include Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, and SAUDIA.

Bartlett explained: “Saudi Arabia undertook to coordinate the meeting.”

“Yesterday, I met with the Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Hon. Kenneth Bryan and President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourist Association, Nicola Madden-Greig, in Puerto Rico. We agreed on a Caribbean presence in Riyadh during the WTTC cim.”

World Tourism Network (WTM) llançat per rebuilding.travel

World Tourism Network Chairman Juergen Steinmetz, the publisher of eTurboNews, attended the CTO and IATA Conference in the Cayman Islands last month. Connectivity was a major discussion point. He suggested:

“Saudi Arabia supporting one of the mega GCC carriers to fly to a Caribbean hub, like Jamaica, would open up not only trade and tourism between Jamaica and Saudi Arabia but has the potential to establish a new market between the GCC region and the Caribbean.”

“I think it would be a win/win for Saudi Arabia to help facilitate this, but an important element is missing. This is missing connectivity between Caribbean island nations.”

“As Qatar Airways, Swiss, Lufthansa, United, and many other airlines had done in the past, a new regional airline invested in by a major carrier in the GCC region, and acting as a feeder to a new Caribbean airline hub, such as Montego Bay, for example, could solve several decades of opportunities and problems. It would be a win/win for all involved and the smartest investment.”

“The regional airline would solve the issue of expensive local connectivity by offering local resident rates for Caribbean countries’ citizens. The airline can generate revenue from local traffic and, more importantly, by connecting long-haul flights. It could extend the network of the long-haul carrier by offering connecting traffic across the Caribbean.

“At the same time, it could establish cost-effective travel for local citizens, because it won’t rely on this local revenue. In addition, this airline could sell higher-priced tickets to visitors from other regions or establish agreements with carriers from North America and Europe.”

World Tourism Network proposed in short:

Investing for a GCC airline into a joint venture with a new or current local carrier, the supporting airline would:

  • Provide affordable inter-Caribbean travel for local citizens.
  • Establish new demand for tourism and corporate markets (GCC, India, Africa) for the Caribbean.
  • Create new tourism and corporate markets from the Caribbean for Saudi Arabia and the GCC region.
  • Help the standing of Saudi Arabia as a global tourism leader.

Edmund Bartlett commented on Steinmetz’s thoughts: “Your thoughts on the elements of the contents of the discussions are well received indeed!”

Gloria Guevara, the Advisor to Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism, said: ” Excellent, but we need to be careful about positioning and creating expectations. The decision at the end is on the airlines.”

donovan White
Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Jamaica

In response to comments on Twitter by Jamaica’s Tourism Director Donovan White, a discussion emerged. Comments included:

  • “How come Caribbean airlines don’t have a Northern Hub in Jamaica and their Southern hub in Trinidad that connects all Caribbean islands with multiple routes and daily frequency?
  • “Wouldn’t that also better solve the small island’s needs for connectivity for tourism & business?”
  • “How come we have many struggling airlines in the region flying around with 20% & 30% load factors, but yet we have frustrated travelers, both leisure & business, who can’t find service or pay through their high tooth to transit through Miami to get from one point to another point in the Caribbean?"
  • “Why don’t Cayman Air, Bahamas Air, Inter Carib, Liat, Aerojet, and Skyhigh all have one alliance to serve the region and connect every point of the region in the English, Spanish, French or Dutch section of the Caribbean? The connectivity for long-haul flights from all continents would allow tourism and business to boom.”
  • “The attractiveness of such an alliance to long-haul carriers from Asia, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Africa, Europe & Oceanic Regions would be shocking for passengers and inbound & outbound cargo.”

” So I ask, why not to our governments across the region? If not now, when?”

It requires regional governments to collaborate on simple policies that make sense. Things like single airspace, single immigration policy for visitors, free movement of nationals, and standardized trade tariffs. It should be easy wins.

The Caribbean government’s support for airlines is what the Eastern Caribbean governments tried to do. It became a colossal failure because they didn’t have any standards. They did it out of a poor business model with no standards. They didn’t train and pay staff properly. So the service was awful.

The airline was always late and never made money for such a small region because the operators didn’t care. They were going to be funded by public coffers anyways.

They depended on government support and restrictions on where you could fly, because only certain governments supported the initiative.

Comments by a known source added: “We should be part of one Eastern Caribbean, so it’s that kind of insularity and self-promotion, self-actualization, behavior that has been poisoning this industry in the region for so many years.”

“The people of the Caribbean should speak to their governments to fix the problem because they are the ones who are feeling the pain.”

“Many people just don’t understand the issues. They think it’s something else.”

The timing has never been better for the Caribbean to flourish through travel for business and leisure by nationals and non-nationals.

From Saudi Arabia with love. From the Arabian Desert to the Blue Waters of the Caribbean, is a win/win partnership on the horizon?

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Dmitro Makarov

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