The Tribune

• In this paper, published in Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, which was chosen as a Highly Commended Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2013, Dr Nikolaos Karagiannis and his colleague from Winston-Salem State University’s School of Business and Economics, Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi, analyse the economic impact of crime on tourism in the Bahamas and wider Caribbean.

Part II will be published on Friday

Beginning with the advent of widespread commercial airline travel in the 1950s, and the global economic boom touched off by the Marshall Plan in Europe and the rebuilding of Japan following World War II, tourism has experienced dramatic and sustained growth such that it now is one of the world’s largest industries (Heppenheimer, 1995). Although there have been occasional localised disruptions due to wars, natural disasters and terrorism, the decrease in cost and the development of commercialised tourist destinations has ensured a steady increase in total demand. We are now witnessing a sea change in terms of the tourist demographic. The collapse of communism a generation ago in Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as the rise of Brazil, India and China as global economic competitors to western hegemony, has resulted in more tourists coming from these non-traditional sources.

Tourism has become the Caribbean’s most globally competitive industry, and is predicated on the area’s warm climate, fine beaches and attractive scenery (Boxill and Frederick, 2002). The region’s international tourist arrivals and receipts have been increasing since the 1950s, although at a slower pace as the industry has matured, and its share of world tourism has been on the rise since 1980. The industry has added more than three quarters of a million jobs over the past decade, and there has been a large increase in visitors arriving by cruise ship, making port calls an important source of revenue for these countries.

Around a quarter of the Caribbean’s GDP comes from tourism, making it the most tourism-dependent region in the world (Clayton and Karagiannis, 2008). Yet this figure is somewhat misleading, as the proportionate impact of tourism on employment differs from country to country (Poon, 1993). According to Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) data, in 2000, tourists dropped a little less than US$1,000 per head, and nearly US$20 billion in total, into the region. It accounted for as little as 3.6 per cent of GDP in Trinidad and Tobago, and as much as 83 per cent in Anguilla. Vaugeios (2002) calculates that this represented between 50 and 70 per cent of the hard currency earnings of the region, displacing traditional agricultural exports as the major source of trade income. This is true even as natural resource extraction (oil and natural gas in Trinidad and Tobago, bauxite in Jamaica) and offshore banking (the Bahamas, Cayman Islands) have moved into view as important, globally competitive industries in their own right.

Yet these industries, unlike tourism, lack the ability to procure large-scale employment for unskilled and semi-skilled Caribbean labourers displaced as agriculture diminishes in importance. Without tourism, the balance of payments would be decidedly more negative on the current account of various Caribbean economies. Tourism’s share of current account receipts doubled from less than 18 per cent in 1980 to about 37 per cent in the 1990s (Mather and Todd, 1993). Even still, there is great leakage in gross foreign exchange earnings that varies widely between various Caribbean economies, but averages about 40 per cent (Karagiannis, 2002).

Yet the tourism industry, while continuing to grow, is no longer generating the same high levels of growth that it did in the 1980s. Undoubtedly, the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, and the recent financial crisis in 2007-2008, have partially accounted for this. American air travel declined in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and while European visitors did not drop off to the same extent, the region’s proximity to the US, which is an advantage in the competitive tourism market in normal times, also contributed to a disproportionate negative impact.

Security concerns have become an ongoing issue with the tightening of protocols in the US for outbound air travellers. While most countries have required the use of a passport for all international travel, the US has stood virtually alone in having the ability for its citizens to travel without such papers throughout most of the Caribbean until very recently. Thus Americans could reasonably wake up and decide to take an international trip to these destinations on the spur of the moment, and could re-enter the US with only a birth certificate and US driver’s license, while individuals in other countries required at least a passport and, often, a visa. While Americans still do not require visas to travel to most of the Caribbean, the State Department since 2007 has required Americans to show a passport when re-entering the US by air, effectively reducing the available supply of potential visitors to this region.

These enhanced restrictions could not have come at a worse time in that they coincided with the recent financial crisis that began in late 2007. Indeed, figures and relevant statistical information clearly illustrate that Caribbean tourism performance has declined significantly during the last three years (Caribbean Tourism Organisation 2011)). Although the worldwide decline in travel and tourism demand was 8.5 per cent, the loss in the Caribbean was 13.5 per cent, which translated into a temporary loss of some 365,000 jobs (WTTC 2011). This reflected the extent to which Caribbean islands rely on the US market, even as the region has found that European tourist visitors have become its most important source of growth over the past 20 years due, in large part, to a growing charter travel business.

These are all external, uncontrollable factors that have impacted the industry. While local tourism and government officials can fret about such issues, there is really little that they can do about them. Yet the Caribbean has placed itself at a disadvantage because of the perception that it is no longer the safe haven it once was perceived to be. The rise of criminal activity, especially the drug scourge and organised gangs, have reduced the ability of the region to attract visitors, and it is in these areas that governments of the region can have an impact.

Without an alternative, sustainable, globally competitive industry on the horizon, the region must work to ensure the Caribbean remains a major tourist attraction. Yet there are challenges as it works to expand offerings. Gambling, found in many enclaves, can bring with it the seedier elements of organised crime. Expanding offerings beyond enclosed enclaves, and near ports where cruise ships lay anchor, means exposing tourists to local nuisance crimes (petty theft, illicit drugs, prostitution) that may be detrimental to the tourist experience the region wishes to project.

As such, we develop this paper as follows. The first section provides a preliminary discussion on problems of crime and criminal activity in the Caribbean, especially as they relate to tourism. The second part singles out various areas of concern, namely economic costs, long-term investment dampening, illicit drugs, gangs, indirect costs, and youth as the primary perpetrators of crime in the region. The final section offers policy considerations towards halting the impact of crime and criminal activity on Caribbean tourism performance.

A FIRST LOOK

When visitors think of the islands of the Caribbean, lounging on white sand beaches and snorkelling in clear blue waters are what immediately come to mind. But there is a darker side to the idyllic atmosphere of the birthplace of reggae and calypso. Crime, especially violent crime, has plagued the region, causing reduced levels of investment (The Economist, 2008) and tourism (Alleyne and Boxill, 2003) than would otherwise be the case. Beyond this, crime has a self-feeding aspect, since increased criminal activity spawns from economic deprivation. Yet economic deprivation is also caused by increased criminal activity.

The region has a perception problem, and it does not matter whether the criminal activity is homegrown or imported. In Aruba, two cases have captured the US public’s imagination with regard to the small island paradise. Natalee Holloway’s disappearance and the murder of Robyn Gardner drew unwanted attention to the Dutch colony. Though the main suspect in the murder of Ms Gardner is an American who is charged with executing a murder for financial gain to collect on an accidental death policy, this is of little comfort to a tourism industry that was already shaky in the wake of the Holloway disappearance (USA Today, 2011).

Murder rates have risen sharply, even in countries where unemployment has remained low and growth strong, such as the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, where murder rates increased by 33 per cent between 2004 to 2007 (Stern and Balestino, 2008), and Trinidad and Tobago, where murder rates more than quadrupled between 1999 to 2007 (The Economist, 2008). To protect tourists and their lucrative tourism sectors, Caribbean countries have responded with “enclave tourism”, where all-inclusive resorts cater to the whims of travellers, shuttling them between the airport and the resort, and carefully arranging any tours so that individual tourists are not placed in potential danger due to wandering into the wrong neighbourhoods.

Yet this comes at a price. When visitors to the islands go to an all-inclusive resort, they end up with an experience that is less expressive of the island culture. Instead of providing guests with an international experience with the locals, these resorts separate visitors from residents, breed resentment among the island populace towards foreigners, and reduce the economic viability of micro-enterprise entrepreneurs by denying them the ability to freely sell their wares to tourists.

Even so, the need to protect international visitors from criminal elements is understandable. All it takes is one Fountain Valley Massacre to destroy an island economy for years. In September 1972, Ishmael LaBeet and four masked accomplices entered the clubhouse at the Fountain Valley Golf Course in St Croix, the US Virgin Islands, and killed four tourists and four local employees execution-style while making off with $700 in cash from the register plus an unknown amount in the wallets and purses of the murdered victims. Tourism in the ‘American Paradise’ did not recover for two decades, but the worst aspect of this incident was that the machine gun used by LaBeet during that heinous crime actually came from the St Croix police department. This fact was not revealed until a Pulitzer-prize winning article by Melvin Claxton (1994) appeared more than two decades later, and detailed how police determined not only that the gun used in the crime had come from their department, but that one of their own police officers likely gave it to LaBeet.

The US Virgin Islands, in fact, has seen a number of violent crimes against tourists. Beginning in October 1993, US Navy ships were prohibited from docking in St Thomas following six assaults on Naval personnel in a period of only two days (Rohter, 1994). Four months earlier, one naval officer had been killed and two sailors assaulted on the same island (Daily Gazette, 1994). The Navy planned to restore shore leave in April 1994, but this plan was put on hold following the murder that month of a swimming instructor from San Diego named Murray Callan, who was shot from behind without warning by two gunmen less than a quarter-mile from his hotel (New York Times, 1994). The Navy finally restored shore leave in November 1994 (Daily Gazette, 1994).

These incidents have only grown worse. By 2009, the US Virgin Islands was rivalling Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago for the non-coveted mantle of ‘murder capital of the world’ (Mortenson, 2010), and the problem only grew worse with an additional 10 murders in the territory of 100,000 people in 2010 (Shea, 2011). Even tourists on tour buses are not safe when the level of violence is so high. In June 2010, 14-year-old cruise passenger Lizmarie Perez Chapparro was killed while on a chaperoned tour conducted by the cruise ship in St Thomas, when her bus was caught in the crossfire during a gang shootout (Sloan, 2010).

In contrast, Jamaica, by and large, has responded quickly and decisively when violence against tourists has occurred. In August 1991, the US government issued a travel advisory warning Americans about the crime problem in the island nation and urging caution while visiting the country. The Jamaican government responded within days to the advisory by increasing police patrols and security in tourist areas (New York Times, 1991). In July 1992, following the Ocho Rios murder of a Dutch tourist and the subsequent travel advisories issued by the British and Dutch governments, the Jamaican government briefly instituted army patrols of tourist areas (de Albuquerque and McElroy, 1999).

Over the next six years, crimes against tourists dropped by about 70 per cent (from more than 600 to less than 200), but in January 1999, in response to two separate robberies in the previous two months involving busloads of German tourists, the Jamaican government once again called out the army to patrol tourist areas (BBC News, 1999). These actions were controversial, as many commentators believed such measures were sending a message that Jamaica was unable to control the situation, and that visitors to the island nation were in more danger than was actually the case, though the tourist industry itself had recommended that the patrols be instituted.

Yet many times, violence against tourists occurs when they are outside the relatively safe confines of the tourist enclaves, or when they themselves are engaged in illegal activities. In 2001, British tourist Melanie Rose Clarke was murdered by a companion while travelling by taxi on the way to a relative’s home. She had been visiting Jamaica in order to attend a relative’s wedding (Daily Mail, 2001). In 2006, a pregnant Swedish woman was killed at her home in Jamaica, while later that year an Australian tourist was killed after apparently inviting a prostitute into his hotel room (Fox News, 2006). In 2008, another British visitor was killed in the home that she owned in St James (Leppard, 2008). In 2010, a tourist from New Zealand was killed in a botched robbery attempt at a Kingston home (UPI, 2010). Later that same year, Paul Martin, a Canadian tourist, attempted to kill his wife by blaming the attack on carjackers. Luckily, she survived the attack and was able to testify against him ( Jamaica Star, 2010).

Violent crime against tourists has never reached the level that locals face, and it is still a fact that tourists are much less likely to be victims of violent crime while on vacation than when they stay at home. However, negative perception is still an issue, and it is one that persists even in cases when initial claims of violence have later been discredited. The case of Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer is illustrative. In March 2007, Woolmer was found on the floor of his hotel room in Jamaica. He was taken to the hospital and could not be revived (CNN, 2007). Police initially considered it a homicide, but three months later, it was determined that Woolmer died of natural causes (BBC News, 2007). Unfortunately, memories being what they are, people remember the initial report and not the subsequent retraction.

While violent attacks are rare, there is often a perception they are not, and when they do occur, the region’s police forces have an abysmal record of clearing cases.

Indeed, when one considers that only 49 per cent of all Jamaican murder cases were solved between 1997 and 2000 (The Economist, 2002), one wonders whether tourists might find themselves the victims of other tourists who see the inability of the police to solve such crimes as an opportunity to do what they cannot do at home (Gleansor and Peak, 2004). Still, it is murder and other violent crimes that capture the public imagination, and create antipathy towards the region, rather than the surreptitious lifting of a wallet or absconding with a purse or laptop that is far more prevalent.

At the same time, since establishments that cater to tourists usually have significant private security, one might expect that victimisation rates of tourists would be lower than would be found in the general population. Johnny and Jordan (2007) find this to be the case for St Lucia. While it is true that higher crime rates affecf both tourists and residents, the higher level of security undertaken at resorts does seem to pay some dividends in keeping tourists safe.

Similarly, when one considers that very few of the millions of tourists report any type of crime to the police, one gets the distinct impression, that crimes against tourists are less of a problem than what the media portrays.

What to do about the problem is something that vexes Caribbean governments. None want to suffer the same fate as Aruba with its steep decline in tourism following the Natalee Holloway disappearance (Schorn, 2006). The downturn in Aruban tourism was at least partially caused by the persistent media coverage and the impression that the government was incompetent, corrupt or both with regard to the investigation into the matter.

Jamaica, on the other hand, has worked to reduce its murder rate by setting up military patrols and reinstating the death penalty in 2008. The strategy appears to be working, although it will take more time to see if the trends are sustainable. From a high of 1,682 murders in 2009, the total dropped to 1,428 in 2010 and only 238 for the first three months of 2011 (UPI, 2011).

Other tactics are to look at the root causes of crime. Given the active involvement of youth in gang-related violence, crime reduction “programmes may include very simple things such as systematic efforts to improve parenting skills” (Harriott, 2002, p. 14).

Regional cooperation is also important, so that beggar-thy-neighbour policies are not instigated that merely transfer the criminal problem elsewhere. The Regional Task Force on Crime and Security, formed in 2002, was CARICOM’s attempt at “designing and implementing strategies to combat crime across the region” (Tsvetkova, 2009). Yet without the participation of all factions of society, these policies are likely to fail. To that end, effective witness protection programmes are needed in order to ensure public cooperation. Unfortunately, some countries, such as the Dominican Republic and St Lucia, do not have such programmes (US Department of State, 2011), while others, such as Jamaica, are inconsistent in the application of their programmes ( Jamaica Observer, 2011). This will help reduce worries that witnesses will have to choose between the truth and their own lives.

More needs to be done to reduce the animosity that is felt among the populace towards the police. For example, extra-judicial killings in Jamaica are frequently mentioned in the media (Fahim, 2010; Summers, 2002) and this does little to build trust. Harriott (2002, p. 17) suggests “improved police responsiveness and accountability” to the public would go a long way to solve this problem.

Yet there seems to be a disconnection between the need to handle headline crime and the passing annoyances that most tourists take for granted when they go on vacation. Harriott (2002) notes that Caribbean governments are preoccupied with crimes against tourists, even though tourists have lower incidents of both violent and non-violent crime perpetrated against them than the resident population, even allowing for length of stay. For example, during the whole of the 1990s, even though Jamaica received 15 million visitors in that decade, t just 18 were murdered (Harriott, 2002, p. 3).

During the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000, only two people were murdered in Barbados (Harriott, 2002, p. 3). Yet politicians focus on the quality of the experience, trying to turn the Caribbean into a Disneyland-like retreat from the real world.

In 2005, the Bahamian Prime Minister, Perry Christie, complained: “Why would a visitor want to leave a clean, safe, all-inclusive resort to be exposed to filth and rip-offs? How many times have we seen dead animals in the streets on the way to resorts? [. . .] A band of no-good young fellows does not have the right in our countries to cause the nationals to suffer. A priority must be placed on stamping out criminal behaviour [...] In the context of people travelling globally, they are not distinguishing in any great detail between a country here and a country there in this region.”

Indeed, this preoccupation about the image portrayed to tourists may lead to a heightened sense of danger where none exists. After all, unlike in the USs and Europe, crime figures in the Caribbean are treated almost like state secrets, leading some to speculate that they do not want to have this issue highlighted. But this only makes the anecdotal evidence all the more difficult to rebut....

TO BE CONTINUED