New WEF report highlights what to improve in Latin America & Caribbean’s travel & tourism economy
Report reveals Caribbean’s Achilles’ heel
In its recent insight report titled Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Travel & Tourism (T&T) Competitiveness Landscape Report: Assessing Regional Opportunities and Challenges in the Context of COVID-19, the World Economic Forum (WEF) enumerated a number of factors that LAC countries must address in order to sustain the revival of the T&T sector that has been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Countries should attend to the low scores they have garnered for the Business Environment and Safety and Security pillars, and address the challenges with various infrastructure. Most notable would be the air and ground transport assets, which are relatively “underdeveloped.” Both of these problems discourages visits and T&T investments.
In the report, which measured the region’s 2019 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) results and performance since the 2017 index, Haiti remains as LAC’s least-developed infrastructure (130th), with especially low marks for the Air Transport Infrastructure (126th) and Ground and Port Infrastructure (138th) pillars.
“While recent performance might not be as relevant due to the COVID-19 crisis, results can still indicate the general trajectory the LAC’s T&T economies are on,” WEF reported.
Another is the below-average environmental sustainability that puts the region’s advantage in nature tourism at stake.
The report revealed that the existing treaties and protected lands might not be enough to protect natural resources. Air pollution, deforestation and species endangerment have continued to rise over the past two years.
In this aspect, the country with the largest decline in subindex score is Trinidad and Tobago (–20.0%, 105th to 129th), with most of the drop coming from less favourable protected area figures (–93.8%, 16th to 123rd), caused by a methodology change.
Yet still Haiti ranks lowest in the region, receiving unsatisfactory marks for both the Natural Resources (138th) and Cultural Resources and Business Travel (125th) pillars.
“Addressing long-term challenges such as cultural and environmental degradation in addition to changing dynamics caused by the spread of COVID-19 will become essential,” WEF suggested.
Managing the region’s health and hygiene system will also be essential in the revival of T&T industry, as well as the increased investment in digital technology.
Dominican Republic is most improved in T&T
According to WEF, despite the pandemic, the longterm likelihood for a running travel and tourism industry “remains encouraging.”
It also reported that out of the 21 LAC countries covered in the report, 12 have increased in T&T competitiveness since 2017, with Dominican Republic the only nation in the Caribbean to register the greatest improvement.
“The industry (T&T) has historically outperformed global GDP growth and is likely to do so again once COVID-19 is controlled and the economy recovers,” it said.
The tourism sector must be quick to act, WEF warned further, because if it fails to do so “there is a risk of losing consumer trust as well as damaging the very assets that make these destinations attractive.”