David Jessop, Contributor

By 2014, close to three million, or 17.1 per cent of the Caribbean's workforce will be employed in the tourism sector.

By then, the industry will have become the most important in all but four nations, generating an average of 16.5 per cent of the total economic activity of the region.

In countries such as Jamaica, The Bahamas, Antigua and the British Virgin Islands, these figures, as a percentage, will be much higher.

Despite this, the public debate about tourism policy is, at best, sporadic.

Ignored issue

Little is written about the business of tourism or the trends that affect the industry. Its competitive position and the implications of change for those who work in or depend on the industry is, for the most part, ignored.

Tourism is unique among Caribbean industries.

Unlike agriculture it has always had to compete globally and for the most part without the protection of governments. Its survival from its infancy to today has depended on its ability to deliver a unique well-priced product better than an ever-growing list of competing international destinations.

What this means is that the biggest and least understood long-term economic challenge the region faces is not about the future of preference-based agriculture. Rather, it is in maintaining and enhancing the competitiveness of the region's tourism product.

Peter Odle, new president of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) and the owner of Mango Bay Hotel in Barbados, knows this well.

Fierce global competition

In a speech on June 28, the day he assumed the role of leadership of the region's largest private sector institution, he recognised that the tourism sector faced fierce global competition.

This will, he said, come not only from nations far beyond the region but also from within the Caribbean as destinations and properties increasingly compete with each other.

The issue for the Caribbean tourism industry, he noted, will be to sustain the charm and uniqueness of the smaller properties without spoiling the informality and ambience that the region is known for. Training, he suggested, was one response.

Mr. Odle is right. Visitors have a choice. They expect and demand service of the highest standards and competence. In this, the region is competing with Hawaii, the Maldives, Mauritius and Dubai.

Up to now, one way of achieving this has been to encourage investments and the operation of properties with globally-known names such as Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton that provide training - the skills and knowledge about how to run successful properties.

But by bringing in high-end brands or encouraging much-needed investment, there is a real danger that the Caribbean will homogenise, even sanitise, the region's product in a desire to provide international levels of service and efficiency.

Worse there is the possibility that small locally-owned hotels may become marginalised or financially unviable.

This is both a policy challenge and a business opportunity. It requires thought being given by Government and the industry to the ways in which the new tourism economy can be better integrated with the old.

It suggests that much more needs to be done to support the region's smaller and indigenously-owned hotels to ensure the informality, ambience and charm that Mr. Odle described are matched by international levels of service.

Cultural, natural attractions

Beyond this, it also means that visitors need to be provided with enough to do in the way of heritage, cultural and natural attractions outside of hotel properties, if they are to feel they are experiencing the Caribbean. Which is to say nothing about the encouragement of local bars and restaurants that enable visitors to feel better connected to the people of the region and to contribute more evenly to the wider economy.

Odle's remarks also set the scene for some important changes to the way the industry thinks about itself and its future relationships

There were warm words for the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and recognition of the importance of the two organisations working together to achieve the understanding that the industry now touches every aspect of life in almost every Caribbean nation.

Odle spoke too about the cruise ship industry.

Abandoning old antagonisms, he noted that with the scaling back of cruise line itineraries as a result of increasing oil prices, those representing land-based tourism should begin a meaningful dialogue with the cruise ship companies about the interdependence between the two.

All stakeholders in Caribbean tourism, he noted, benefit from the presence of the cruise ships in the region.

He spoke in much the same vein about relationships with government. He made clear that the industry must have a greater interest in the policy environment within which Caribbean tourism operates, saying international trade negotiations pose a challenge.

Crucial importance

Odle welcomed the fact that senior ministers and trade negotiators were now working with the industry, and had recognised its crucial importance as the economic facilitator that drives development in the region.

"It is now up to us all to replace rhetoric with action and to ensure we fully participate in the dialogue that will result in arriving at clear and unambiguous negotiating positions in the area of international trade," said the hotelier.

Destination awareness has been a key element enabling the Caribbean to compete with other destinations. But are the days of press and TV advertising for destinations, resorts and airlines coming to an end?

If new research is to be believed, the most powerful tool that can now be harnessed is word of mouth.

New research used by Starcom Mediavest, an agency that advises companies and advertising agencies, has developed a way of measuring how effective word of mouth conversations are as new technology and the internet enables consumers to avoid traditional advertising.

Advertisers including Ford, Levi's and HSBC are, it seems, already using video on news and blog sites and assessing the word of mouth feedback that is generated.

This is a development of particular importance to destinations and hotels and one to be watched. The choice of where to go and how to travel is often aspirational and frequently the subject of first-hand experience and personal recommendation.