Latin American Tourists: An Untapped Market for Sint Maarten Latin America comprises of 23 countries – Latin American Countries (LAC). The LAC is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) behind Asia. The growth in LAC has been driven by an increase in capital investment in travel and tourism, and a growth in visitor exports. The number of tourists and business leaders visiting the United States from Latin America has continued to increase. Where are we into tapping the LAC market? At what pace are we moving? Brazil has seen the most dramatic growth in the LAC region and the country’s economy is now the sixth largest in the world, about 2.4 trillion US dollars, which represents close to 40 per cent of the entire LAC and Caribbean GDP. It has always been said don’t put all of your eggs into one basket. The goose that laid the golden egg for country Sint Maarten over the past 40-years has been North America (mainly United States) followed by Europe. Those eggs continue to roll our way, however we must plan strategically for the future. The 2008 financial market crash and subsequent recession, the worst since the 1920s did not impact country Sint Maarten as severe as other countries and regions around the world, however, as a country we need to plan strategically since tourism is our bread and butter. There has been attention given to economic diversification, but not much has taken place to drive this forward. There has been some discussion of diversifying our tourism market and some initiatives have been taken by several stakeholders to move in this direction. One of the markets that country Sint Maarten should focus on is LAC. We already have established airlift in the name of COPA Airlines out of Panama which said airline has an established network throughout LAC. The country has had a rep in either Brazil or Argentina over the years and we have had several thousand visitors over the years from mainly from the two aforementioned countries. We are we today? How do we measure past investment and compare it with the future? Where do we want to go? LAC should be of great interests to the tourism sector of our country. Tourists from LAC countries travel during our off season months which is their winter season. Just like Americans and Canadians like to travel during the winter season which is our high season, why not make our off season a high season for LAC tourists? Various countries around the world are working to attract LAC tourists. Dubai’s (Middle Eastern country) tourism authority has opened an office in South America and has seen an influx from the fast-growing Latin economies such as Brazil and Argentina. Dubai’s strategy is to go after emerging markets like LAC. They have successfully done this in India and China also considered emerging markets. This has translated into a record number of tourist and an increase in hotel revenues. Dubai reported a decline in tourism from Britain, which used to be its biggest feeder market. If we travel a little bit further and far out to the Pacific, from Dubai in the Middle East to New Zealand, near Australia, Latin America is a major source of tourist arrivals for New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand has completed an initial study into the Latin American market, and it shows that it has generated approximately 25,000 arrivals and 72 million dollars in tourism expenditures over the past 12 months. According to New Zealand authorities, LAC has been identified as one of the three emerging markets forecast to provide enormous opportunity for the country in the longer-term. The two other markets are Indian and Indonesia. Some of the key information that came out of the New Zealand study is that of the Latin American markets, Brazil provides the largest volume of holiday arrivals ranking 24th out of all markets, followed by Argentina (30th), Chile (36th) and Mexico (37th). The majority of Latin American visitors are independent tourists who come to New Zealand for holiday purposes. Typically around 50 per cent are aged between 20 and 39, although Argentinean tourists have a secondary peak between the ages of 40 and 59. Most visitors from these Latin American markets are dual destination tourists and most include Australia as the main dual destination. The potential and opportunity is there.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 16:25:55 +0000
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