Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Elizabeth Thompson says it is about time governments and the private sector within the Caribbean make a more determined effort to find a sustainable air and marine transport service that will benefit the region as a whole.
Speaking during debate on the Airport Service Charge Bill 2022 in the Senate on Wednesday, Senator Thompson said: “If we are to think of CARICOM [Caribbean Community] as a regional bloc and view the Caribbean Single Market and Economy as a living thing, we must ensure that people, goods and services can move around the region more easily and at competitive rates. Why is it that after all this time we still cannot get regional travel right?”
She spoke of some of the issues Caribbean travellers had dealt with over the years, including high costs and inconveniences.
“You arrive in one destination to find that your luggage is in another, or you discover that the plane you were relying on to take you to your destination has been re-routed, leaving you stranded. And, most people, if they find it is virtually the same amount of money to travel to a Caribbean island as it is to travel to Miami or New York, they would choose to go to one of those cities rather than the Caribbean,” she said.
Senator Kristina Hinds also lamented the inconvenience of travelling through the region at present.
“Just last week, I had to do a presentation at a Commonwealth conference in St Kitts, and one of my colleagues from Grenada and I spent two weeks trying to get a reasonably priced flight. However, even though St Kitts really is not that far away from us, we were expected to fly to Miami first and then back down to St Kitts. We did our presentations via Zoom instead of going to all that trouble but, ironically, the participants who came to that conference from the United Kingdom got a direct flight,” she said.
Senator Thompson added that until the governments and private sector can get regional travel priced right, including looking at seat capacity and determining the most viable routes, “we will not truly maximise our potential”. “Given the fact that some people in our source markets save money for years before coming here, it might be an idea to make multi-destination tickets available, so that if they come down for a week they may get the chance to enjoy about three different countries during that time,” she added.
Senator Thompson added that if Caribbean governments are serious about regional food security, reliable airlift and maritime transportation are required.
“I would suggest some fast ferries to move people, products, and livestock throughout the Caribbean, especially given that the CARICOM region is the only one with which we in Barbados have a trade surplus,” she said. (DH)
