Business View Caribbean - February 2016 55
“The fourth signature event that we have is the Ca-
ribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operations
Summit that’s held in November. That’s done primarily
by a company called HVS and we, along with the Ca-
ribbean Tourism Organization, are host sponsors, as
well. Those make up the bulk of our major activities
and events.”
How else do you communicate with the member-
ship?
“We probably communicate with them about four or
five times a week. We try to balance it so we don’t over-
communicate, but we have various ways. We do webi-
nars, email, and social media. At our Caribbean Travel
Marketplace, we had over nine million social media
hits on that event; it was quite exciting to see that kind
of engagement.”
The Great Recession harmed tourism pretty much
everywhere, but particularly in the Caribbean. What
does the landscape look like for the industry over
the next several years, and how do you see the As-
sociation continuing to be a viable voice for the sec-
tor?
“We just completed our first annual ‘Industry Perfor-
mance and Outlook Study.’ The findings really showed
that we’re continuing on an upward path that started
about three years ago for the region as an aggregate.
Some destinations did okay during the Recession,
some struggled quite a bit, and some came out of it
earlier than others. Collectively, the region really came
out of it about three years ago, and we’ve seen a good
upward trend line. More than half the hotels reported
strong to moderate performance in 2015. With in-
creased occupancies and arrivals, most hotels also
increased their employment rolls. So there was some
robust hiring, last year.
“Also, one of the things that happened during the Re-
cession is we saw a retrenchment in capital expendi-
tures. We’re starting to see people coming out of that,
and last year, they came out of it quite significantly. So,
capital expenditures and investments in hotel proper-
ties were up, last year, and are projected to increase
in 2016. The profit picture is a little unsettling, yet, in
part because of people still struggling. There are a lot
of back payments and things that were put on hold.
