[dropcap]H[/dropcap]urricane Irma swept into the Caribbean on September 6, 2017. By the time it made landfall in Cuba, the category-five hurricane had devastated much of the region, particularly the islands of Antigua, Barbuda, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Barts. Hot on its heels was the equally destructive Maria which formed in the Atlantic just two weeks later. Also a category-five, Maria compounded the destruction in the Leeward Islands and is regarded as the worst natural disaster on record in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Nine months later, the region is rebounding. Many of BVI’s resorts and hotels have re-opened, almost half of Dominica’s total room stock is now back onstream and most of the affected islands are welcoming cruise ships back to their ports. The road to recovery has been a difficult one, however, and the economic aftershocks will be felt for some time. As the 2018 hurricane season gets underway, experts predict between five and nine storms and say as many as four of these could be major hurricanes. Eager to avoid last year’s devastation, stakeholders are now asking what lessons they can take from the 2017 crisis.
While the Caribbean hit a tourism milestone last year, welcoming 30 million visitors, the progress and potential of its number one industry was significantly impacted by hurricanes Irma and Maria. According to figures from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), stay-over visitors fell 1.7 per cent in the second half of 2017 and some hurricane-affected destinations saw their tourism industry decrease by as much as 18 per cent.
Growth was impeded across the whole region, even on those islands which were fortunate enough to be out of the path of the storms. One of the key issues arising from the hurricanes and their aftermath was the faulty perception that the entire Caribbean region was closed for business. The unity of the Caribbean brand did not work in the region’s favour as travel agents, international media and potential visitors assumed the destruction was common to all destinations. Now island tourism boards are realising that educating the world about the region’s unique geography must be a vital component of future marketing efforts.
Delivering the CTO’s annual report earlier this year, CTO Secretary General Hugh Riley said: “Reinforcing the value and the attributes of the Caribbean brand, educating the public and the travel industry on the geography of the Caribbean, and generating demand for the region’s tourism product will take time, careful strategy, and money.”
Money is often the sticking point in recovery efforts but here, too, there are lessons to be learned. Of primary importance is the need for the region to come together and give whatever financial assistance it can. Shortly after the storms struck, the CTO established the Caribbean Relief Fund which, to date, has raised around US$135,000. Many of the donors were local, with Belize Tourism Board raising over US$59,000. Similar funds were created by Invest Caribbean Now and CARICOM. In Saint Lucia, the Chamber of Commerce and National Emergency Management Organization assisted with supplies and funds.
As welcome as they are, charitable donations and public sector funds cannot possibly finance all the recovery and reconstruction efforts needed after a natural disaster on the scale of Irma and Maria. Engaging the private sector has also proved crucial in getting the tourism industry back on its feet. In a recent report, the World Tourism and Travel Council suggests that governments incentivise the private sector to help speed recovery efforts, increasing access to capital for SMEs so they can be a part of the solution and easing entry and work permit restrictions for specialised services.
While rebuilding tourism infrastructure is vital to recouping business, it cannot be done without first repairing vital networks, ensuring that tourists and citizens alike have access to basic services as quickly as possible.
Irma and Maria wiped out an estimated 70-90 per cent of infrastructure on affected islands, according to the United Nations. A category-five hurricane can decimate a country, tearing apart homes, destroying buildings and washing away roads. Storms take their toll on telecommunications networks which can severely hamper the work of emergency teams.
Earlier this month Saint Lucia hosted a 3-day Caribbean Building Standards Forum and Exhibition at which regional and international technical experts came together to discuss building codes, construction products and services, and technologies that can enhance the integrity of structures vulnerable to natural disasters. The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is also doing its part to encourage a regional approach to infrastructure needs and has unlocked US$104m in loans and grants for the hurricane-stricken nations to help them “build it back better”.
For Caribbean entrepreneur Lauren Thomas one of the key lessons to come out of Irma and Maria was the need for public and private sector co-ordination. Thomas, who witnessed “complete devastation” from her home in the US Virgin Islands, saw a disconnect between suppliers and providers in the wake of the storms. To remedy this, she established InCarib, the region’s first online directory of Caribbean infrastructure suppliers which is due to launch at the end of August. Using InCarib, governments and regional development agencies can browse an online database to find providers in a range of industries from building supplies and water management to the energy sector.
“We cannot just walk across borders to help each other,” she says. “There needs to be more systems in place. One of the best things that came out of the hurricane season is that the Caribbean as a whole realised that there needs to be more collaboration. We are separate, but it is very important we work together as a region to handle these types of situations.
“Conversations in the Caribbean are headed in the right direction. People are becoming more proactive this year and it is all revolving around building back better.”
Every year, the environmental challenges escalate. While the link between hurricanes and climate change is uncertain, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions predicts that rising sea levels and warmer temperatures will intensify the impacts of extreme weather events such as Irma and Maria. As the threat grows, so too must the response if the Caribbean is going to sustain economic growth.
As Prime Minister Chastanet told the United Nations General Assembly in September: “What is fast becoming the ‘new normal’ is the intensification of extreme weather events, which demands from us real solutions in real time. No longer can we depend on old mechanisms with dense bureaucracies that delay or limit a nation’s ability to safeguard its citizens during a crisis and slow the rebuilding effort.”
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