Business View Caribbean | May 2019

26 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN MAY 2019 Bahamas at the Baha Mar Resort. “There’s never really been a concerted sustained effort to market the Caribbean as a brand, so working with governments in the region and our public sector partner, the Caribbean Tourism Organization, we’ve been trying to see how we can market our product sustainably, together, to attract international tourists. We’ve had some great success, but in the first couple months following the hurricanes there was a contagion effect, and our arrivals data went down five percent throughout the entire region and that continued for about three months and had lingering impact into 2018. What that told us was that, in the minds of the traveling public, the Caribbean is a brand; that the hurricanes affected the entire Caribbean. So, in late 2018, we launched a digital/social marketing campaign: The Caribbean: The Rhythm Never Stops. And we’re going through an exercise now to see if we can sustain that in a long-term way. “There is dedicated and committed business leadership guiding our policy and directives as an association to showcase to the world the diversity and incredible beauty of the Caribbean, and putting in financial resources through memberships and other initiatives to make that happen. It’s the passion and commitment of the business leadership in this region, and some incredibly dedicated people on the public sector side, that makes it so special and exciting to be a part of CHTA.”