Two major Caribbean organisations are promoting the message that more than 70% of tourism product in the Caribbean remains unaffected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which caused devastation when they struck earlier this month.
Speaking to TTG at World Routes in Barcelona, Carol Hay, director of marketing UK and Europe, Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), said: “More than 70% of the Caribbean tourism product remains unaffected by the two hurricanes and they are up and running and ready for business.”
And during a separate interview with TTG in London, Frank Comito, chief executive, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), explained that more than 75% of hotels across the Caribbean were operational.
Hay continued: “Some countries have said they will be open for business by the end of November, while others will take a bit longer.
“In some of the countries that have been more impacted it will take some of the product up to a year [to recover].”
She added that agents could get week-by-week updates on how the recovery is going from both the CTO and the CHTA’s websites.
Hay went on to urge agents to remind customers that the hurricane season is coming to a close.
Comito echoed the sentiment that the vast majority of the region remains unaffected by the hurricanes.
For the first time the CHTA has built a detailed information website – caribbeantravelupdate.com.
On the site, destinations are labelled as “open for business” or “on the road to recovery”, and within each destination individual hotels are listed, alongside a description of their damage.