Virgin-Islands-On-Line's Coconut Telegraph

Caribbean Fears Storms Will Hurt Tourism

This AP article was filed from the US Virgin Islands - it is without a byline but I assume someone is there covering the CTC conference. It does raise and interesting and valid point though of guilt by association - consumers tend to think of the Caribbean as a whole, and bad news for one island can be construed as bad news for many:

"CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) - Caribbean tourism officials are worried this year's record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season could scare away visitors who may falsely believe the entire region has been affected by the flurry of storms.

How to deal with the negative publicity surrounding hurricanes was one of several issues officials planned to tackle at the four-day Caribbean Tourism Conference that kicked off Sunday in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The meeting came as the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the season, Alpha, came ashore over the Dominican Republic and Haiti, days after a fierce Hurricane Wilma roared through the region before slamming Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Alpha later weakened into a depression.

Officials say the Caribbean's frequent association with storms only makes life harder for the region's fickle tourism industry, the backbone of many small-island economies. The region has seen a slow but steady rise in visitors since a drought in travel after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"People's sense of geography isn't as sharp as we would wish it to be, so the perception is that when one country is affected (by hurricanes), all are," said Hugh Riley, marketing director for the 32-member Caribbean Tourism Organization.

A spokesman for the tourism department of the British Caribbean territory of the Turks and Caicos islands agreed.

"If there's a hurricane off Barbados, we get calls (from abroad) asking if family members are OK in the Turks and Caicos," some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away, said Kingsley Been."

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Posted by afinta at October 24, 2005 12:05 PM

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