INTRA-REGIONAL TRAVEL has taken a nosedive by a staggering 30 per cent since the merger of regional carriers LIAT and Caribbean Star.

This was stated yesterday by St Lucia's Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Senator Allen Chastanet at a breakfast seminar held by the Barbados Chamber of Commerce with the title Regional Air Travel – A Deterrent To Business – How Can We Fix It?

The only way to fix the situation was with a single airspace, Chastanet told top business people at Savannah Hotel, in Hastings, Christ Church, as he expressed concern about the big dip in intra-regional travel to his country, Barbados, Antigua and Grenada. He estimated the drop at 30 to 40 per cent.

* Earlier this month Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) president Alvin Jemmott estimated the tourism sector lost US$2.5 million last year as a result of a 16 per cent drop in CARICOM travellers to Barbados.

* According to the Barbados Statistical Service, 82 989 CARICOM nationals (not including T&T) visited the island in 2006, but 13 000 or 16 per cent fewer visited last year. For Trinidad and Tobago alone there was a 12.2 per cent drop in 2007 from the 34 480 who visited Barbados in 2006.

* Central Bank Governor Dr Marion Williams in her review of the economy's performance for 2007 blamed the drop in regional visitors on "higher airfares and route rationalisation by some Caribbean airlines".

It was a tremendous loss to the economies of the region, Chastanet said, adding: "For the last 50 years, nothing has changed with Caribbean intra-regional travel except the names of airlines have changed and the amount of money lost keeps going up; but it is still the same."

He criticised the archaic system that governed air regulations, saying that unless there was a major change in the structure of Caribbean air services, regional governments would continue to make the same mistakes.

One space

Chastanet said that in the first year after the merger, travel between Barbados and St Lucia dipped by 40 per cent and in the second year by 30 per cent.

"We must start looking at this area as one space. We must understand that by not treating this region as one airspace, if you come into this region and want to do multiple destinations, it will cost you an arm and a leg if you are talking about travelling 15 minutes," Chastanet said. "Creating one space, making it easier for people to do business, we must move to one CARICOM card, one immigration card and start harmonising our systems so that we can do business better with the world, and that's when we will start seeing efficiencies," the St Lucian minister said. (JW)