Just as cruise ships provided much needed relief for evacuees of Caribbean islands during the one-two punches of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, other elements of the local tourism industry are already hard at work helping to get the region back on track.
While governments struggle to get help to devastated residents in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, St. Barts, Barbuda, Dominica, and other hard-hit communities, one thing that outsiders can do to help is go visit other islands that made it through relatively unscathed. A majority of the Caribbean islands, where tourism accounts for up to 90 percent of the overall GDP, still need visitors this winter—both for themselves and to support their suffering neighbors.
“We need people to be part of this economy,” explained Nikheel Advani, chief operating officer and principal of Grace Bay Resorts in Turks & Caicos, a chain of 40 islands that depends on tourism for 85 percent of its direct and indirect GDP. His resorts recently welcomed their first guests after the hurricanes, with little visible damage beyond a few stripped palm trees. “In the news, everyone is saying that the Caribbean is closed. Taking away the fear right now is key.”
Why? The tourism industry in the Caribbean isn’t just on the front lines of economic impact, it’s also on the front lines of relief. “We’re operations people,” explained Advani. “We make things happen. We’re decentralizing the recovery process, and the government has been open to letting us do what we need to do—they’ve been facilitators, and we [travel professionals] have been the doers.” For his part, that means coordinating efforts between multiple resorts and aid organizations to distribute materials, raise funds, and maximize those dollars to rebuild homes and restore jobs. That’s how Providenciales, the island at the nexus of the Turks & Caicos chain, got back to its status quo within three days. With hotels back online, says Advani, it’s easier to drum up more fundraising and shift locals from self-help to help-others mode.
Ovation Travel President Jack Ezon, who has been something of a ringleader in helping hotels and travelers navigate the post-storm aftermath, says Advani is in good company. Maurice Bonham Carter, owner of travel agency Island Destinations, has donated $1 million in relief funds and is matching contributions from the clients for whom he’s planning trips; the tour company Voyage by Pascale has seeded a $15,000 fund to help Caribbean schools replenish what they’ve lost; the luxury advisers at Forest Travel chartered two jumbo jets to send 17 tons of supplies and evacuate at-risk locals; and the regional charter company Tradewind Aviation has coordinated relief flights. This is hardly a comprehensive list. Patronizing these change-makers—and the resorts on the ground that are banding together to make a difference—is the best way to ensure that their efforts continue.
“We need to encourage people to travel and stay in the region,” said Ezon, who had $18 million in travel bookings in the Caribbean scheduled from September through the holiday season. (Of those bookings, more than half were shifted to unaffected destinations, ranging from Cartagena to Los Cabos.) “This literally puts food on people’s tables. Your luxury is someone else’s necessity.”
“Consumers don’t understand that over 70 percent of our Caribbean destinations are open as usual,” added Karolin Troubetzkoy, president of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association and co-owner of St. Lucia’s five-star Jade Mountain resort, which was not in either storm’s path. Avoiding these untouched islands will only escalate the Caribbean’s crisis by further damaging its biggest revenue stream.
And ultimately, says Ezon, “It’s all one economy. Providenciales is going to help Grand Turks. Tourism revenues in Antigua will help Barbuda. There’s a ripple effect here that’s very important.” Islands that get back to normal quickly will continue fundraising for their neighbors, until everyone's back online; weakness in one portion of the Caribbean softens the tourism market for all of them.
With that in mind, we’ve rounded up an impressive roster of open-for-business hotels that have long set the standard for luxury and are now setting the standard for local philanthropy after Irma and Maria.
Grace Bay Resorts, Turks & Caicos