VINCENT Vanterpool-Wallace, former Bahamian tourism minister, former Secretary General and CEO of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, has sung the praises of the Turks and Caicos Islands’ impressive high end tourism product.
Speaking last week at a business outlook conference, hosted by FortisTCI, Vanterpool-Wallace urged TCI business, tourism and government leaders to ensure that the valued tourism product is protected and nurtured for its continued survival.
The former government minister, a much sought after speaker and advisor to both private companies and governments in the tourism and hospitality arena, spoke on the topic ‘The future of tourism in an age of changing technology and business models – Airbandb/VRBO’.
The Harvard University graduate is also the founder of Bedford Baker Group, a collection of independent professional advisors offering services in travel, tourism and hospitality.
He has also served as a former director general of Bahamas Tourism.
The conference was held on Thursday, April 27, at The Shore Club, under the theme, ‘Future ready: Opportunities for business in a changing economy’.
Examining why the Turks and Caicos Islands has been able to do so well in the area of tourism, even while surrounded by many other equally beautiful locales, Vanterpool-Wallace stated that the reason the TCI does so well is its decided advantage in the warm weather tourism.
However, he added that this description is not good enough: “When you look at what the Bahamas has to offer it is very similar kinds of basic products… and so you begin to try to figure out what else is there between what is happening in the Turks and Caicos and what is happening the Commonwealth and the Bahamas.”
He also pointed to the concentration of tourism in Providenciales, positing a previously touted idea of the concept of ‘business clusters’.
“When you begin to look at the Turks and Caicos very closely, you begin to notice something very significant – what you had happen here is a business cluster of investors who adopted a certain way of doing business and came together, by putting together a certain business model.”
He then challenged the attendees to examine any of the other 30 countries in the Caribbean against the TCI and to try to find the same or a similar investors or business cluster as in the TCI, in terms of what they have put forward and how tourism in the country is grown.
“That is a very special and significant difference; but there is a little bit more to it, the other thing that you begin to see is something that is very different – and it is an even more important feature – what these investors did is that they created products that attracted a certain quality of customers.
“It became the gallery place for a certain high income group of families.”
He further stated that the secret to this is very simple, ‘Birds of a feather, flock together’.
“People who are looking for people like them to come to a particular place; that makes a difference.
“We all tend to gravitate to places where we feel comfortable among one another, and that is what happened here in Turks and Caicos.
“We have this group of investors who created a certain business model and they collectively began to attract a certain quality of people who are coming to a very upscale place, in terms of where they want to go, who they want to associate with.”
He further noted that it is very important that the TCI continues to preserve the kind of tourism it has so that visitors will continue to recommend the Turks and Caicos Islands, particularly Providenciales, to their friends and families.
