In a significant speech on the challenges facing tourism in Antigua and Barbuda, Tourism Minister, Asot Michael, has drawn attention to stiff competition that the industry faces, especially from a burgeoning Cuba.

Minister Michael was speaking at the graduation of the 2016 students of the Hotel and Tourism Training Institute.

The Minister warned the graduands that “the tourism business particularly is highly competitive and it is getting more competitive every day”.  He said “Ours is not the only country that relies on tourism for our economic growth and social welfare. The competition is intense”.  And, he added: “Other destinations are increasing the number of their hotels and resorts, and they are fighting every day to diversify their tourism markets and to multiply the airplanes and cruise ships that land in their countries”.

Minister Michael drew particular attention to the challenge that will be posed by Cuba whose relations with the United States has improved dramatically in the last few months.  He said: “Last week, the US authorities gave licenses to several airlines to do multiple flights into several cities in Cuba on a daily basis.   Those airlines include American, Delta and Jet Blue.  We will face enormous competition from Cuba, for tourists, for investments in hotels and resorts, and even for airplanes to fly into our country”.

The Minister explained that it was to counter the serious competition faced by Antigua and Barbuda that he spends so much of his time “travelling to push our country; to make deals that benefit us; and to try to bring more investors to our shores”.  “I am up against a formidable number of other Ministers of Tourism and other countries that are pursuing the same objectives”, he said.

Minister Michael continued: “It is heart-rending that when we attract major tourism investments to our country, such as Paradise Found in Barbuda, these projects are met with hostility by the very people that need the investment”.  He told the graduands: “All of us have to recognize that we are not the only place in which tourism investments can be made, nor will investors wait around for us to make up our minds whether or not we want their investment. They have many other places from which to choose”.

Stating that the government has attracted significant investment in hotel projects that have either started or will be started shortly, the Minister identified these as the Paradise Found, and the Gravenor Bay project in Barbuda and several other developments on Antigua such as: Pensioners Beach, Deep Bay, Pearns Point, Valley Church, Morris Bay, Half Moon Bay, Guiana Island and Crabbs, Dutchman’s Bay, Marble Hill, Halcyon Beach, Sand Haven, and Fort James.

But, he told the graduands that “whatever investments the Government attracts, their ultimate success will depend on the people in the front-line of the business”.  He told the graduands: “Those people are you”.

“The tourists who come to our country, are its life blood”, Minister Michael said.  He continued, “They pump the money into the veins of our economy. They are the heart beats of our growth; and the pulse of our development. Looking after them is the most crucial task that any of us can perform in the interest of our economy; for the good of our people; and for our individual well-being”.

And, he told the graduands that they “have an important responsibility to the nation and to themselves” to give every visitor a happy experience that encourages them to return.