CARIBBEAN NATIONS PAY BIG FOR TOURISM PROMOTION

These fast facts are courtesy of Caribbean Property Magazine:

Caribbean nations continue to dole out big bucks to promote their tourism product in the U.S., a CWN analysis of the latest Report of the Attorney General to the Congress of the United States has found.

The semi-annual report for just the first six months in 2007 shows that six Caribbean nations spent approximately 31 million U.S. dollars for public relations services and tourism marketing across the United States.

• The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism was at the very top of the pile, doling out a whopping US$19,199,044 for the six month period ending June 30, 2007 while shelling out another $1,065,011.25 for the six month period ending June 30, 2007.

• The Cayman Islands was right behind, reporting spending $7,227,179.61 for the six month period ending March 31, 2007 for its tourism.

• The Caribbean Tourism Organization in New York reported spending $2,442,903 for the six month period ending June 30, 2007.

• The Jamaica Tourist Board reported paying their public relations agency $547,385.82 for the six month period ending March 31, 2007.

• The Dutch dependent territory of Aruba reported only $95,474.75 for the six month period ending March 31, 2007

• The Turks & Caicos reported a mere spending of $39,985 for the six month period ending March 31, 2007.

Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominica, Grenada, St. Martin and Belize, all failed to report their spending on the tourism front.
But they reported spending on lobbyists:

• Barbados said it paid a U.S. policy consultant $76,283.54 for the six month period ending February 28, 2007 to monitor developments in the U.S. list of countries eligible for reduced dividend withholding and U.S. legislation on the `tax haven` measure.

• Belize`s D.C. Embassy reportedly paid out $61,022.00 for the six month period ending June 30, 2007 for legal and other lobbying services.

• The British Virgin Island government paid $50,000.00 for the nine month period ending June 30, 2007 while Trinidad and Tobago paid $344,089.55 for the six month period ending February 28, 2007.

That sure is a lot of money spent to get the USA to visit the Caribbean!