After The Hurricanes, Caribbean Travel Is Coming Back Faster Than You Think

Doug Gollan - Forbes.com

When agents from Ovation Vacations call clients to discuss their upcoming winter travel plans, many are surprised to hear their favorite Caribbean resorts and islands are already open, back in business or will open by the Festive Season, the period that starts on December 22nd and runs until the 3rd of January. “Tourism puts food on the table so it’s our responsibility to help get people coming back,” says Jack Ezon, president of Ovation Vacations.

As Irma and then Maria tore paths of devastation through the region, Ezon said his advisors were arranging charter flights to get clients home before the storms hit. But seeing the wall-to-wall television coverage, he was already concerned that as the news channels moved on, viewers would be left with the impression that the entire region was impacted. “Our responsibility is to put things into perspective,” he told about 80 journalists attending Virtuoso Travel Week here Las Vegas, pointing out the Caribbean covers an area equivalent of Toronto to Miami from north to south and Los Angeles to Atlanta from west to east.

The conference brings together over 6,000 of the network’s luxury travel advisors, travel suppliers, promotion boards and the media, and with so many reporters in one place Ezon said, “Each advisor has hundreds of clients. You have millions of readers. We need your help to get the word out." The good news is current bookings for Festive are 13% behind last year “which is not terrible...There’s space, but it’s not wide open.” January is currently running 18% behind last year while both February and March are nearly equal to 2017.

An upcoming advertising campaign funded by a coalition of Caribbean nations titled, “The Rhythm Never Stops” will use music from different countries as part of the effort to woo back visitors, according to Karolin Troubetzkoy, immediate past president of the Caribbean Hotel Association. She said in times of distress, “We’re one family,” adding hoteliers who last year gained business rebooked from impacted islands donated over $250,000 of those proceeds to help in recovery efforts.

Now the focus will be on getting travelers back for the critical peak Winter travel season. “Only 10 of 33 countries were impacted (and) as of May, about 90% of room inventory is now open," she said. Only six of 32 islands are still in recovery mode although the impact was harsh. The storms created a loss of nearly $900 million in revenues, just under one million visitors and over 12,000 lost jobs.

Even some of the hardest hit islands are on there way back. On Anguilla three of the island’s 5-star hotels reopened earlier this year and 98% of restaurants have reopened with the remaining ones waiting for the peak season. St. Barts, which was also hit, is also coming back with nearly 70% of its popular rental villas ready for arrivals, and most hotels back too, although Le Guanahani, which has water on both sides will remain closed until late 2019. Restaurants and shops have been open since earlier this year and many of the island's loyal repeat guests were at the lead in making donations. Those who have already been back said they don’t mind the lack of crowds. Since there was a lot of concrete construction, the damage was more limited than other places.

One of the hardest hit places was the British Virgin Islands, and Rodney Skelton, Deputy Director of the tourist board noted a flood and landslides before the hurricanes only amplified the destruction. It lost about 90% of its business for an economy where tourism accounts for 60% of GDP. Fortunately, he told the group charter yachts came back quickly and Richard Branson’s high profile Necker Island is due to open October 1. While favorites such as Biras Creek and Bitter End Yacht Club won’t reopen this year, he said visitors are discovering some of the other options including, eco-friendly Cooper Island, Oil Nut Bay with its uber-luxury villas and Anegada Beach Club, which features a glamping experience.

In terms of trying to help in the recovery, the action isn’t limited to land. Vicki Freed, a senior vice president for Royal Caribbean Cruises said it is increasing its ports of call and bringing its newest ship, also the largest in the world, the 228,000-ton Symphony of the Seas starting in November.

She said the tragedy gave the company a chance to find its inner soul. Instead of taking its ships and redeploying them to other parts of the world the company made the decision as soon as it could bring its guests back home, it would go full throttle into aiding in recovery efforts.

“These aren’t just places we drop off our guests in the morning and pick them back in the evening. These are the homes of our colleagues who we have been working with for 50 years. They are part of our family,” she said.

The mega-ships were used to shuttle in relief supplies, including over 500 generators, plus fuel and pallets of diapers and baby food. The empty ships were then used to evacuate guests from hotels, the elderly and pregnant women, then families, including their pets. Shipboard miniature golf courses were converted to an area that dogs, cats and even guinea pigs could relieve themselves. She said for the crews on the ships watching families who lost everything except what they had with them, with their pets, on their way to safety on the U.S. mainland was a moving experience. “It made us a richer company,” she told the room. With more than 30 tours in each of its ports, Freed added the line is “doubling down on the Caribbean.”

David Zipkin, the co-CEO Tradewind Aviation said his company’s first airplane landed in St. Barts two days after Irma hit bringing in relief supplies, including generators from San Juan. With St. Barts having started to recover when Maria smacked Puerto Rico, he said residents of the French protectorate brought generators and supplies they didn’t need to the airport so Tradewind could fly them back to San Juan. It ran over 200 flights relief flights and helped other charter operators and private jet owners coordinate relief flights.

“Nothing prepares you for the aftermath, especially when you have a family with small children,” said Carmen Teresa Targa of Puerto Rico's Condado Travel. With a generator they reopened only days after the storm and to her amazement, with no phones or ways to communicate, the staff showed up and the office became an alternate home where they ate meals as they began working to help clients stranded away from the island to extend their stays and then help in the community.

She wants tourists to come back this winter, not only because the hotels are open and the economy needs a boost, but, “We want to say thank you for the supplies, thank you for the donations, thank you for the text messages of support.”