'Removing travel restrictions will boost inter-Carib tourism'

THE TRAVEL restrictions between countries in the Caribbean continue to be a sore point for the region's efforts to unify its position on tourism, according to Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) President Josef Forstmayr.

"Caribbean people want to travel. So if you remove the visa and offer affordable airlifts, you will find more people wanting to visit their Caribbean neighbours," Forstmayr revealed during a CHTA press conference at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa.

He referred to the Air Jamaica deal with Caribbean Airlines where Jamaica released its grip on the national carrier through its sale and, as a result, the island is now seeing an increased airlift from other Caribbean islands. He recommended that other territories in the region be open to similar ideas, in making regional travel less hassling and more cost effective.

"As a Caribbean national, it is my right! I should have to right to travel between Caribbean islands without having to go to Miami to pay US$600 to go to Barbados. This is ludicrous! There are companies out there who are willing to offer low-cost travel within the region, but they are being put through bureaucratic hurdles and they are not willing to take risk," a passionate Forstmayr told the group of journalists.

Alec Sanguinetti, director general at CHTA, outlined that the Caribbean region is the only area in the world with 35 countries and a total population of approximately 40 million persons and does not have a low-cost carrier. "Nobody is prepared to invest in a low-cost carrier as the aviation policies of the region is not attractive for such investment," he charged.

Sanguinetti harshly criticised Caribbean leaders for their failure to act on the San Juan Accord, which would seek improve travel restrictions among its neighbours.

The San Juan Accord is a memorandum on the regional air transport sector that was agreed on by Caribbean Tourism Organisation members in 2007. It was aimed at discussing proposals for reconstructing the regional air transport sector in order to offer the best prospects of safe, secure and sustainable air services in the Caribbean that is consistent with their Government's long-term economic development objectives.

"To date, none of those actions that has been called on to do (coming out of the San Juan Accord agreement) has ever been implemented. None of them!"