Monday, July 3, 2006

Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation

VINCENT Vanderpool-Wallace, Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), said many Caribbean countries including the Cayman Islands are getting it wrong in tourism marketing.

The CTO believes they are missing out on a golden opportunity to reach many more people and savings on operations and promotions by not fully utilising the Internet.

Mr Vanderpool-Wallace said Cayman and the other Caribbean destinations could function more effectively without many of their overseas tourist offices. 

"This entire revolution - of what has not happened yet for us in the Caribbean - is easy to understand," he told eTurboNews. 

"Think about where people want to put offices related to the cost of establishing themselves at a marketplace. It will not vary whether they open one in Florida or Russia. The difference is zero."

He said the Internet has allowed the regional tourism departments an opportunity to reach millions of people yet some countries were considering opening new offices.

"What they should be doing is shutting them down," he said in an interview focusing on lowering cost for a more competitive Caribbean destination.

The article also focused on the need to lower the cost to get the destinations to be more competitive. Also, there was a need to reduce communication and transaction costs through the Internet.

Research conducted by the CTO revealed that the United States had 152 million Internet users, China 75 million, Japan 52 million, Germany 32 million and the United Kingdom 30 million.

Mr Vanderpool-Wallace thinks more emphasis should be placed on e-business by
developing websites to deliver the highest quality, which provides business information, statistics, photos, videos and digital materials.

Senior Vice President of the Americas for Jumeirah Hotels in Dubai, Frank Vanderpost, cautioned that the Internet must be used wisely.

"The ways in which we approach pricing and representations in the market and market perspectives, in this era, businesses have to play the Internet game wisely," he said.

"Websites must be easy to manage and easy to navigate through, whether of a hotel or destination."

Mr Vanderpost said unique products and visitor experiences could be masterpieces in a country's promotional campaigns.

"Differentiate your product from the competition is where you hit the market, selling good experience rather than price," he said.

Another suggestion from the CTO chief Mr Vanderpool-Wallace is for countries to stop printing brochures that he believes are senseless. 

He said they should invest the money into the development of the Internet instead of beefing up offices around the world.

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