It was good news for members of the Caribbean Tourism Organization when the CTO Chairman revealed the industry is finally looking up.
“The state of the Caribbean’s tourism industry is solid, with positive signs that a recovery is in progress,” said Beverly Nicholson-Doty.
The CTO Chairman led a press conference from Government House, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas USVI on February 10 where she delivered the State of the Industry Report for 2013.
Nicholson-Doty said there were strong indications of recovery in the industry, chiefly, that visitors were spending more money.
“One of the strongest indicators of progress is the rise in estimated visitor spend, with expenditure growing faster than visitor arrivals for the first time in three years,” she said.
According to the Chairman, visitors to the region spent more than 28 billion dollars in 2013, an increase of 2.3 per cent when compared to 2012.
“The hotel sector performed even better, recording a rise of more than 7.5 per cent in room revenues…average room rates were up nearly US $10 to $186, the average revenue per available room also grew by about $10 to $125 and occupancy levels were at 67 per cent.”
She said that since the start of the year, the region has recorded an increase in seismic activity.
“We have been seeing elevated activities in our region in the Trinidad area and in the Antigua area. So yes, our regions have been showing particular zones. Even east of St. Lucia we have been tracking a little elevation. So there are little zones that are manifesting elevation.”
The seismologist, who has long warned the region to expect a massive earthquake, cautioned this could still occur and insisted that Caribbean countries must be earthquake ready.
“Every day that passes the occurrence of that earthquake is closer to us. And certainly the activity that we are seeing in the region is a cause for concern that this earthquake may be a little sooner than later.
“But of course we are unable to give a date, time and place because there are a number of areas along the Eastern Caribbean Arc in which this earthquake can occur. We have had our major earthquakes between Antigua and Barbuda and north of Martinique and north west of St. Lucia and north west of the Paria Peninsula and so it’s got a big choice.
“And so all of us in all our countries we need to be prepared because we do not know just where this big earthquake will occur. But what we do know no matter where it occurs because earthquake waves travel it means that even if you are 200 kilometers away from that big earthquake you can experience significant tremors.
Latchman said that while earthquakes in the Barbados zone are “a little different from what we would have along the islands of the Eastern Caribbean where the earthquakes occur in a denser pattern… we would expect to see on average, every year, an earthquake in the magnitude 4.1 to 4.5 range and 5 of them in the 3.6 to 4.0 range”.
She said most of these earthquakes “occur very close to the island of Barbados.
“So Barbadians should not have a complacency that earthquakes in the Eastern Caribbean do not affect them. An earthquake along the arc just needs to be large enough and in 2007 most Barbadians would have felt the earthquake that was located north of Martinique at a magnitude 7.3 and caused damaged in Barbados,” she said, noting that in 1953 the earthquake that occurred north west of St. Lucia also caused damaged in Barbados.
“So Barbados has had impact from earthquakes in the past and I am convinced that Barbados will have impact from earthquakes in the future.”
She said she was urging Caribbean nationals to visit the Unit’s website in order to get up to date information on earthquakes and even tsunamis.
Source-CMC
