SEVERAL regional Ministers for Tourism, including two Deputy Prime Ministers, recently had the opportunity to discuss issues regarding intra-regional airlift as well as the free movement of persons within CARICOM.
Ministers from the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Grenada and Curacao met while attending the 2023 Caribbean Showcase of the American Society of Travel Advisors, at Beaches Resorts in the Turks and Caicos.
The ministers expressed their concern about the challenges facing Caribbean nationals with respect to the lack of sufficient routes and high cost of travelling within the region.
According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism for the Bahamas Chester Cooper, regional governments recognise the importance of remedying this issue.
He said, “The issue of multi-destination tourism and air connectivity are issues that we discussed actively; how we connect the Caribbean territories so that we don’t have to travel to Miami and lay over for five hours.”
Minister Cooper also acknowledged that the matter has been discussed at the CARICOM level, and insists there must be a commercial solution “where Bahamas Air gets with Cayman Airways, Caribbean Airlines, Inter-Caribbean and really map-out some routes that we can make successful.”
The minister went on to say that Bahamas Air and Caribbean Airlines have already started discussions.
Meantime, Minister for Tourism and Economic Development for Grenada Lennox John Andrews, along with the Minister for Tourism for Antigua Charles Fernandez, had the opportunity to meet with the Chief Executive Officer of Inter Caribbean Airways Trevor Sadler during the convention.
Also present at the meeting were Gary Sadler, Executive Vice President of Sales and Industry Relations at Unique Vacations Inc. and David Shields, Vice President of Sales at Island Routes Adventure Tours, both affiliates of Sandals Resorts International.
After the meeting, Minister Andrews said he was able to express his country’s concerns, saying: “I was able to indicate to him the difficulties we are having as regards travel outside of Grenada and what can be done to improve or to overcome that difficulty.
“Our government has been working with Inter Caribbean for some time now and we hope that we can provide the necessary support to that company, being a regional company, to facilitate and to make travel far easier and far more comfortable for our people in the region which in turn would encourage more people to travel and to get things done.”
The issue of the work permits and the free movement of Caribbean nationals also came up for discussion and this was especially relevant for islands like the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, where that island’s Tourism Minister Josephine Connelly admits it is something they need to address.
She said, “There is an issue, but we are working on looking at ways we can make it easier for companies like Beaches to employ people, it should be an easier process.
“I know we’ve been talking about that but we haven’t reached that point as yet.”
For his part Grenada’s Tourism Minister Andrews reminded his colleagues that the goal of CARICOM was to eliminate work permits altogether, allowing people to travel and work freely.
He said, “CARICOM at its last meeting in Trinidad took the decision that by March next year, there will be no need for work permits throughout the region, and we have asked the academics to put the framework in place.
“So, come next year,” he predicted, “a Caribbean national can travel (and work) to whatever country, without the need for a work permit.”
In fact, Minister for Tourism for Antigua Charles Fernandez noted that such free movement was already taking place within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), to which Minister Andrews agreed and said this could be seen as the pilot which can be extended to the wider Caribbean.