2021 will be a year of recovery and transformation in a region that may see a return to tourism quicker than other parts of the world, according to top tourism execs in the Caribbean.

Pablo Torres, president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), credits effective protocols and partnerships that have been implemented throughout the region to help lessen the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as the means safely welcoming visitors again, adding, “Tourism is our key to recovery, to restoring the livelihood of thousands of employees in our industry, to reopening our doors…” (and) replenishing tax revenues to cash-strapped governments.

Acknowledging that that 2021 will be a year of recovery, Torres nevertheless believes that the Caribbean will see a return of tourism “faster than many parts of the world” and that visitors will discover that “the Caribbean is the best place on earth to recover from the ravage of this pandemic.”

Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) acting secretary general Neil Walters believes the pandemic has highlighted the region’s vulnerabilities, but also, importantly, “taught us many lessons about our abilities to adapt in the face of crisis, abilities which I am sure many of us did not even know existed.”

He adds, “Fortunately, for the most part, as a region we have been able to control the spread of the virus within our local populations (and) by the last quarter of 2020, most of the countries in the Caribbean had reopened their borders and the vast majority of reopened countries had also started accepting commercial travel and visitors to their shores.

“We therefore move into 2021 armed with a new set of lessons learnt and with the proof that the Caribbean tourism sector along with its counterpart in public health has the collaborative power to restart, reenergize and rebuild tourism in the Caribbean stronger and more resilient, and ready to face the next challenge.”

Citing expert opinions, Walters says he expects a return to “normalcy” sometime after December 2021, but adds, “Our concept of ‘normal’ is compounded by the view that the measures we have implemented to control the spread of the virus may stay with us for an indefinite period.”

However, positive changes will also be a legacy of the pandemic as “it has also created the opportunity for us to assess the sector and implement actions which have been difficult during the last 20 to 30 years of mass tourism,” says Walter.

“The pandemic,” he says, “has identified one critical common factor, the need for change: the need to think outside of the box and identify different ways of doing things. Since the falloff in tourism activity in March 2020, all tourism policy makers, destination management organizations and other tourism stakeholders have spent time critically analyzing and rethinking the way they manage tourism in their individual destinations. This has led to a spirit of greater cooperation and collaboration, which was needed in the sector, but which has now been clearly shown as critical to the sector’s future and its success.”

Walters points to ongoing research, product development, including heritage and community-based tourism, human resources development and training, and collaborative efforts with the health sector.

“Our collective efforts to date have positioned the Caribbean, from a global standpoint, in this pandemic, as a region which is healthy and safe for travel.”

He notes that the Caribbean recovered and moved forward from destructive hurricanes in 2017 and is resigned to the notion that “future challenges… are sure to come.”

To that end, outgoing CHTA CEO Frank Comito says the organization, which represents some 1,000 hotel and allied members, and 33 national hotel associations, began charting a new proactive course for the future 18 months ago and was well on the way to implementation before COVID hit.

Despite having to shift gears to adapt to the immediate needs of the pandemic, he maintains, “We haven’t lost sight of the long game… and our role in continuing to support tourism development.”

“I’m optimistic,” he adds. “Despite the headwinds that the industry and the organization are facing… 2021 will be a turning point for the industry (and) the best is yet to come!”