• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 04 / 08 / 2011

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By. Raquel Maria Garcia Alvarez.Hamilton, Apr 7 (Prensa Latina) Caribbean tourism is facing the worst period in history due to the global economic crisis, said Director General of the Caribbean Hotel Association Alec Sanguinetti.

Sanguinetti, who is attending the Conference on Sustainable Tourism in Nassau, said the tourist industry is also threatened by inadequate government policies, including tax increases of the last few months.

Sanguinetti said that, compared to a similar period of 2006, this year hotel revenues fell between 15 and 20 percent.

Though in 2010 the number of hotel guests grew 3 percent against 2009, current figures still show the deep crisis hitting the sector, he said.

Under this circumstance, he called for reorienting and diversifying the sector, which guarantees nearly 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product of countries in the area.

The Caribbean is currently the region that depends the most on tourism, a basic source of growth, the second job generator and the most important source of income, worth over USD $39 billion last year.