November 4, 2012
“Caribbean governments (ought) to find innovative ways to increase the volume of passengers rather than imposing high fees and charges.” – Captain Ian Brunton, CEO, LIAT (Caribbean360)
“To most of us in the Caribbean, it does not seem rational to impoverish yourself to grow your economy. To us, it is obvious that is what devaluation implies.” – Dr. DeLisle Worrell, Governor, Central Bank of Barbados (Caribbean360)
“October 1, 2012 marked 52 years for me in the travel and tourism industry and the last 19 years with CHTA (Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association) have been among the most enjoyable. I have had the opportunity in working with CHTA to be involved with the Caribbean hotel and tourism industry which is a far more encompassing and broader playing field than working with any single entity such as an airline or destination. I had the opportunity to meet and work with wonderful and dedicated individuals from whom I have learned such a great deal.” – Alec Sanguinetti, Director General and CEO, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association
“As part of this ongoing campaign, we would like to invite Michel Martelly, President of Haiti, to join other world leaders, as well as the UNWTO and WTTC and to be heard at our side to participate in our efforts to include travel and tourism among the major global priorities. When it comes to tourism, the potential of [Haiti] is incredibly clear.” – Taleb Rifai, Secretary General, UN World Tourism Organization
“We should look at the Caribbean, because the hurricane has had an impact on Jamaica and Cuba and Haiti. One would like to see some form of CARICOM response to the severe infrastructural damage and human damage done in these countries, which unfortunately does not attract as much media attention as that in the US.” – Professor Norman Girvan, former secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States (Trinidad Guardian)
“While we have been impacted by Sandy, we are very much open for business and we are not about to declare a national disaster because it is not a national disaster in that context. You don’t want to squander your ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card in this particular situation when we are moving at pace to address some of the issues. We are still in the [hurricane] season and we have other hazards to deal with, and we want to make sure we have the ability to access support when that time comes.” – Ronald Jackson, Director General, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Jamaica (Jamaica Observer)
“Caribbean governments do not fully appreciate the threats they are being faced (with). (They) do not wish to commit the enormous efforts to change our business model and enormous investment that will be required, but I fear that there’s no alternative. The large financial centres are going to try, and have been trying, to strangle the Caribbean banking sectors. They are imposing regulation that is risk intolerant, that is size intolerant and therefore we have to invest as much in anti-money laundering as large centres. The costs to us doing so are so high. They are going to make it expensive to operate in the Caribbean and therefore businesses will move away.” – Avinash Persaud, Chairman, Intelligence Capital (Antigua Observer)