Tourism officials’ verdict on business travel

Some regional tourism officials are predicting a recovery of the sector by 2023 with a slow but steady growth in business travel.

President of Paulson Puerto Rico Hotels Peter Hopgood said while experts did not expect business travel to go back to 2019 levels just yet, it has been showing signs of improvement over the past few months. He suggested that the slow growth in this area was as a result of companies cutting back on trips due to exposure and safety concerns as well as cost.

Hopgood said now that the Delta variant of the coronavirus was “a little better controlled” in many countries, “we see the intent in business [travel] not only among individuals but also on the group side, so very optimistic 2022 and beyond”.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Bermuda Tourism Authority Erin Smith said she believed that business travel will return to pre-COVID-19 levels when destinations are considered “safe” and by making protocols less cumbersome.

She said business travel to date this year in Bermuda was less than 20 per cent of what it was up to the end of September 2019. “I think what is going to bring them back is making the destination safe but also making it easy for them to travel.

So in terms of protocols, restrictions and travel forms, all of that have to be convenient for a business traveller who is only coming just one or two days. That would be a hindrance to them otherwise,” said Smith.

They made the comments during a recent Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) live chat seminar series. The topic was How do you Stack Up? Caribbean Hotel Performance Year-to-Date and Insights for Winter 2022.

Karolin Troubetzkoy, Executive Director of Marketing and Operations with Anse Chastanet Resort and Jade Mountain Resort in St Lucia, said she believed the time had come for more concerted regional efforts to boost tourism performance in coming months.

“When the pandemic started, we said recovery would be a “Nike shape” and in some instances now it is suggested recovery will not happen until 2024,” said Troubetzkoy.

“I think with what we have seen this year I do think that recovery will take until 2023 but it will also force the Caribbean to finally really address a regional marketing strategy because there will be a lot of destinations [with] exciting new products.

Some of the hotels I have seen open all over the world they are stunning. So, I think that we really need to get our act together as a region,” she warned.

“I know in crises, everybody tends to fight on their own, but I think the time has come again to say ‘we need to come together and really look at the Caribbean regionally and do what it takes to ensure that we continue to be one of the most desirable regions in the world for travel’,” she added.

During the event it was revealed that of the participating hotels in the latest survey showed that occupancy rate for the year-to-date, up to the end of September 2021, reached about 40.2 per cent, compared to the year-to-date information up to September 2019, which averaged around 65 per cent.

Summer months are usually the slowest months for tourism in the region. And this year, some destinations experienced closure during the summer period as a result  of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presenting the data, Rico Louw, Regional Sales Manager with STR – the hotel industry market data firm – pointed out that the occupancy levels in select markets in the Caribbean for the months of May, June, July, August and September this year was uneven.

However, pointing to the increase in occupancy levels in Barbados month on month during the measured period, Louw said “Barbados seemed to have gone through a summer of restrictions then occupancy has just grown in a different trend than the rest of the market that we measured”.

Pointing to pent-up demand for travel among US residents, Louw said this was good news for the region, adding that with the UK also opening up its borders “this is great news for those islands like St Lucia, and Barbados”.