Aviation and tourism are vital components of the Caribbean economy. They provide employment, foreign exchange and taxes which in turn support schools, hospitals, national security and much more. Despite this, it seems not to be widely understood outside of tourism ministries and organisations that the industry requires defending externally with as much energy and passion as was once the case with older industries such as sugar or bananas.
The difference now is that unlike preference-based industries that were in one way or another externally subsidised, tourism, for the most part, operates in a global and ruthlessly competitive environment where policy decisions – international or domestic – can rapidly undercut the industry’s viability. Put another way, the economic benefits of tourism can be lost far more rapidly than those that flowed from industries which were, or still are, the subject of government to government arrangements.
So far this fundamental difference has tended only to be appreciated beyond tourism circles when a decision is
