20 MAR 2019: People, not hurricanes, define the Caribbean and it’s about time the world knows that, says the head of the region’s hotel association. Patricia Affonso-Dass, president Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), says the perception that the Caribbean region is “the most tourism-dependent in the world” – which is to say, that its economic success and survival is beholden to the dictates of Mother Nature – is both outdated and inaccurate and that it is the duty of tourism stakeholders to help the Caribbean be seen for what it actually is: “the most desirable place in the world.”

To her point, Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) data revealed at the recent 37th annual Caribbean Tourism Marketplace in Montego Bay, Jamaica, indicated that the region suffered a significant downturn in visitors in the first three quarters of 2018 due to the effects of hurricanes in 2017 (primarily Irma), before posting a bounce-back at the end of the year when physical damage was largely repaired and, more importantly, lingering negative perceptions in the marketplace began to fade.

Those perceptions are largely driven by the fact that “the geography of the region is not fully understood [by consumers],” says CHTA director general and CEO Frank Comito, adding that “over 75 percent of the Caribbean didn’t even have a breeze from those hurricanes in 2017,” but suffered by association anyways.

“The focus on the Caribbean for a long time has been the sun, the sand and the sea – that’s what most people associate the Caribbean with,” says Affonso-Dass. “But we have an amazingly diverse and rich region and I think we have a wonderful opportunity to pivot the story in a way that helps insulate us a little bit against those types of weather events, or sargassum (seaweed infestation), or whatever, so that when people are thinking about the Caribbean, they are coming to us not just for the beach, but for the richness of the experience, the diversity of our islandscapes. And they’ll recognize that if they are coming to a destination and there happens to be sargassum on the beach, so what? – there are other exciting, interesting experiences that they can have.”

To that end, the Caribbean Tourism Organization has “gotten into the custom of theming years” as a way of highlighting some of the diverse experiences that visitors to the Caribbean can have, says CTO secretary general and CEO Hugh Riley.

This year is the Year of Festivals, with Riley explaining, “There’s a rhythm to the region that cannot be replicated anywhere on earth. The Caribbean is a festival of rhythms and a home of festivals – music, art, literary, sailing, lights, food, rum, religious, dance – all with their own attractive rhythms.”

And while the endeavour has led even the CTO to discover some festivals it didn’t know about, Riley laughs, the point is that is “it gives people one more reason to say, ‘Let’s go to the Caribbean this winter.’”

“Our customers are telling us that they want a richer experience,” agrees Affonso-Dass. “So, in my mind, it’s an excellent time for us to start changing the narrative. Let’s tell a bigger, richer story. Let’s get people more involved and make it a more people-centric story, because they won’t change. The beaches can come and go, we can have all kinds of things going on in our destinations, but ultimately the people that make up these destinations resonate. When I speak to guests and ask them if they had to name one reason why they come back to the destination, the first answer is never the beach. It’s always the people.”

Those people, she asserts are “our most important asset and our most marketable commodity,” adding that she wants the Caribbean to be known as a region where genuine service is delivered by “regionally proud, highly trained professionals who understand the critical importance of their role and their importance to the success, sustainability and economic viability of the region.”

Also, that the Caribbean is “the most tolerant and inclusive, most welcoming, most hospitable, most facilitative and investment-friendly, and most environmentally sensitive region in the world.”

Affonso-Dass points out that the CHTA counts 33 countries, speaking four languages, as members and covers an area of 2.75 million square kilometres.

“I think it really speaks to the tremendous diversity of our region,” she says. “And when something happens, it causes us to pause to figure out what this region really is. And how do we educate people to realize that if something happens in one destination that the entire region isn’t wiped out and that there are millions of people across the region who are still getting up and going to work and ready to welcome guests to this area?

“Your role,” she urged delegates, “is exactly that, telling them, and painting them [a picture] and inspiring them about this wonderful region we call the Caribbean.”

One way of doing that will be through the ongoing CHTA and CTO efforts to complete a “Brand Caribbean” framework and infrastructure with partners designed to market the full scope of the region’s size and diversity “under duress and in good times and in bad.”

“[It will comprise] all of the music and the culture and the dancing and food that goes along with that and the love of people,” says CHTA chief marketing officer, Matt Cooper. “Leading with culture is very much a part of that as we go as we market the region together.”