Tourism And Hospitality Management In The Caribbean

I am delighted to welcome Associate Editor Dr Chandana Jayawardena as Guest Editor of this unique collection of articles on ‘‘Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Caribbean’’. In keeping with our goals, Chandi has assembled an outstanding team of practitioners and academics and together they provide a rich array of insights on the challenges facing tourism in the region. I should like to thank Chandi for the many months of planning that he devoted to this issue and the team of contributors who have made it possible. This issue is dedicated to the Caribbean, arguably the most tourism dependent region in the world. The Caribbean is a fascinating and unique region. An archipelago of tropical islands naturally decorated with exotic flora and fauna, surrounded by blue sea water and gentle breezes, and blessed with 365 days of sunshine is the general impression of the region in the minds of many. This image made the Caribbean the most sought after region for romantic holidays and honeymoons in the world. But the Caribbean has much more to offer to the millions of tourists and cruise passengers it attracts (Jayawardena, 2002). For convenience, the term ‘‘Caribbean’’ is used in this special issue to identify 33 destinations that are members of the umbrella organization of the region’s tourism industry, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). In this definition, the Caribbean region includes a few countries/regions on the mainland in South America and Central America. The area between the south of Florida in the USA, Cancun in Mexico, Belize in Central America, Venezuela, and Suriname in South America, is now referred to as the Caribbean. although in the Atlantic Ocean, the Islands of Bahamas and Bermuda too are treated as Caribbean countries by the CTO. Tourist arrivals to the 33 CTO member states increased by approximately 59 per cent from 1990 to 2000, or at an average of 4.7 per cent. This compares favorably to 4.3 per cent growth rate of world tourist arrivals over the same period. Tourism receipts in the Caribbean during the year 2000 were just under US$20 billion, and the latest CTO forecast predicts that this should rise to some US$35 billion by the year 2112. The past, present and future of Caribbean tourism in a nutshell looks like that shown in Table I. To external observers, the Caribbean is always full of surprises. As an example, many will be surprised to note that the four Hispanic Caribbean states: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Cancun and Puerto Rico record the highest growth rates in the Caribbean, and currently control around half of total arrivals to the region. In 2000, only six Caribbean countries attracted over one million tourists and the arrival figures (in millions) in these countries for 2000 were: 1 Cancun – 3.04; 2 Dominican Republic – 2.97; 3 Cuba – 1.77; 4 Bahamas – 1.60; 5 Jamaica – 1.32; and 6 Puerto Rico – 1.17 (CTO, 2002). These six countries