Financial crisis affecting Caribbean tourism

Published: Friday October 10, 2008

Chief executive officer of Caribbean Airlines (CAL), Philip Saunders, said yesterday that the tourism industry in the Caribbean is being challenged by the global financial crisis.

Tourism is the backbone of the Caribbean economies with the exception of T&T.

Saunders said that in the Bahamas, hotel occupancy was as low as 30 per cent.

He said that the full impact of the credit crisis will be felt in the coming months and points to consider would be airline travel and hotel occupancy.

“Looking forward, I think its hard to tell because the economic situation on a global basis is very serious and I understand, for example, that in the Bahamas, hotel occupancy rates are as low as 30 per cent. I think that gives a strong indication of what’s happening in the market. The tourism industry is indeed challenged by that situation.”

However, the global financial meltdown has not had any impact so far on Caribbean Airlines.

“We’ve had an extremely strong year. To be absolutely honest, we’ve surpassed our revenue targets every month so far this year. I was looking at our figures for September yesterday and they appear pretty robust,” he said.

But while CAL is performing well, Saunders acknowledged that the financial situation could have spillovers.

“For the moment there is a robust performance. It’s hard to be clear about the challenges ahead. Certainly, I think that there is a challenge in the tourism industry and the Caribbean as a whole,” he said.

Asked to elaborate on the wider implications, Saunders said that, “We wait every day to see what developments there are in the global economy. Let us hope, actually, that the situation improves, but every sensible company has to look at what could be the impact economically.

“At the moment, I remain confident that measures we are taking at Caribbean Airlines, (will) secure our future in a positive way.”

Saunders was responding to questions after the launch of the Sunshine Awards, which takes place on October 25 in New York. The launch was held at CAL’s offices at Nicholas Towers, Port-of-Spain.

Saunders’ view on oil prices, which are fluctuating between the US$90-$99 a barrel, was that at US$90, oil was still at “an unprecedented high level.”

“And its no question that it represents a challenge to the whole airline industry, to all industries as a whole. I think that in our case, as you know, we have a fuel hedge in place which helps us to move forward but as I say we have to continue to plan for the future,” he said.


Source: Trinidad Guardian Newspapers
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business1.html