All in the Caribbean family recognise the central importance of airplanes and cruise ships to the region’s tourism industry; and, in turn, the importance of passage by land, sea and air for regular travel and business generally. But despite the bustle of transport that’s visible in our cities and among our major transport hubs, there remains a ‘missing link’ in the fleet, and its absence is undermining our potential. Yes, ferries are already seen among the region but, with the right infrastructure upgrades, they would be more commonplace, and bring economic benefits.
Keeping a Good Crew
The need to upgrade ferry infrastructure within the Caribbean centres around a key premise: there is the need to upgrade infrastructure, but that does not mean any requirement to otherwise change the existing ferry network. Enhancing existing amenities and adding new ones wouldn’t hinder present operators, but be a boost to them.
Companies like the Martinique-based French operator Express des Iles could stand to benefit immensely. Running routes between Saint Lucia, Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante, Les Saintes, Dominica and its homeport of Martinique, this and similar businesses provide proof positive of the Caribbean’s potential to become a ferry epicentre. But however fantastic an individual business or ferry trip may be, without the complementary infrastructure to board passengers and receive them at additional locales, then the region’s transport potential is massively unrealised.
As an example: for many years tourists keen to island-hop between Grenada and nearby states like Saint Lucia have lamented the lack of a ferry service.
If they cannot privately charter a boat, they must opt for the sometimes less-desirable choice of flying, which can add great expense to any itinerary. In other instances, tourists are faced with the choice of booking a cruise that allows them to visit many islands, albeit on a restricted itinerary, or they forgo exploring the region and essentially stay in one nation for their entire trip.
Then there’s the untapped market for ferry use by locals. As the 2015 World Bank Group report ‘Driving Tourism in the Eastern Caribbean: The Case for a Regional Ferry’ detailed: “ . . . there is little cross-elasticity of demand between air and sea travel, and only significant changes in price or trip durations could cause passengers to switch from one mode of transport to the other”, and that, in turn, a “regional ferry system would encourage a new class of traveler, and, therefore, will allow the region to tap into a potential new market of tourists, including local, intra-regional tourists who find it difficult to travel by air, as well as stayover international tourists who may be interested in traveling to more than one island”.
Getting All Hands on Deck
Beyond transport benefits alone, upgrading regional ferry capacity would be a tremendous boost to the surrounding communities that live and work around the docks. There’s also the possibility of tying in such upgrades with other amenities to aid growing industries, like moorings for luxury yachts that promise to inject an extra touch of glamour and additional tourist spend into any port at which they dock. A push for improvements would also extend and add to the existing ferry routes. Yes, the Caribbean Sea can be rough at times, especially in the hurricane season, but advances in technology promise a smoother journey for passengers.
The Implementation
As a region with over two dozen states and in excess of 7,000 islands, the Caribbean clearly offers a ferry-friendly environment. However, the route to optimising the local network does come with challenges. Similar to cruise ship port upgrades, new ferry terminals could be magnets for public-private partnerships (PPPs) but, as any international route would require coordination between multiple nations and the private sector, such a plan isn’t easy to reach agreement on.
Prior measurements have put the average PPP at sub-US$ 100mn, which is small by international standards, and thus any project below that level is sure to see many bigger private firms decide to not buy in. In such circumstances, private investors may opt to buy into an existing national network, like the British Virgin Islands’ extensive ferry system, over seeking to build big internationally. In turn, any structure built now must come with the added planning – and potential cost factored in – of climate-resilient design.
Nonetheless, with the World Wildlife Fund estimating in 2015 that the total global value of key ocean assets is a colossal US$ 24tn, there’s no question the Caribbean could see its local slice of this sum reap immense ROI following a substantial upgrade of ferry infrastructure.
A Time for Investment
CARICOM (and other regional organisations in its spirit) seeks greater regional economic integration. The grand achievements of such a dream – like a Caribbean-wide free trade agreement or adoption of a single currency – have many high barriers; increasing ferry use does not. It offers a strong but simple way to streamline the exchange of commerce between neighbouring nations.
For Caribbean businesses anxious over the decline in air and cruise revenue due to the coronavirus, news of infrastructure upgrades for ferries would offer an alternative avenue for revenue generation in future, and a new reason to hold onto hope while navigating these turbulent waters.
