Comment: Caribbean needs to rethink its marketing strategy – fast

TravelMole MD Graham McKenzie reflects on the Caribbean’s post-hurricane marketing plans.

"I was delighted to be invited to attend the Caribbean Tourism Organisations State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) in Grenada. The focus for the gathering was ‘Supercharging the Caribbean brand’, but given the ravages of the recent hurricanes much of the time was taken, quite rightly, talking about the recovery process and if the recent weather events gave all countries an opportunity for a new concerted effort to promote ‘One Caribbean’.

The reality is that over 70% of the region was unaffected by the hurricanes and is very much open for business. Up until the wicked sisters Irma and Maria came visiting nearly all destinations were reporting increases in visitor numbers for 2017 and for some it was set to become a stellar year.

However, the hurricane-effect was felt much further than those islands that were physically damaged. For many potential visitors the whole region had been tarred with the same meteorological brush and as a consequence visitor numbers have dropped.

This statistic was borne out by a recent poll on TravelMole where almost 50% of over 1,000 travel trade respondents said they were not confident of selling the Caribbean. How to arrest this swift decline and to ensure better performances in the future took up the majority of the on and off-stage debate in Grenada.

Many called for a campaign that better educated potential visitors as to the geography of the region, others for better marketing, better service and training, greater airlift plus of course all agreed that promoting the region as a whole would be a route to tourism salvation.

Quite frankly these are the same debates that one can hear anywhere in the world and certainly ones that I have heard almost every time I have visited the Caribbean over the past decade. How many of these arguments remain legitimate is a debate in itself.

Let’s take the marketing of the region as one big entity to start with. How many regions around the world actually do this? Europe – No; Indian Ocean – No; Mediterranean – No. So why is it such a fixation for the Caribbean? Brand USA is often used as an example of excellence but surely in this case the 52 states still market individually and the effectiveness of the national marketing body is, for some, still open to debate. Greater geographical knowledge is always welcome. You only have to ask disappointed hoteliers in certain parts of Europe when terrorism strikes some 5,000 miles away and swathes of Americans cancel their trips. Geographical nous or lack of it is not restricted to the West Indies.

My personal take on it is that almost everybody I have ever met who has been on holiday to any Caribbean country has had not just a good time but an experience that will provide a lifetime of happy memories. This will have been because of the fabulous topography, food, music and sea but mainly because of the people, the Caribbean characters that inhabit every single island in the region. The tourism product and those who serve it up is by any standards excellent. Show me somebody who is due to visit the Caribbean that is not excited and thrilled at the prospect.

Sunset at Grand Anse Beach Grenada

What the Caribbean as whole is poor at is communicating this and has been for many years. Websites in general are inadequate and the use of social media even worse. Many think that marketing and social media do not require specialist skills or training – wrong! It does and if the Caribbean is to perform better in the coming years then that is an area that requires vast and rapid improvement. Tell the world what a fabulous place it is to visit – do it quickly, cheaply, colourfully, topically , authentically, but above all, just do it."