AS regional travel stakeholders congregate in Cayman to discuss intra-regional travel, president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Hyginus “Gene” Leon reminded the audience that the region’s connectivity problem goes beyond the aviation industry.

Dr Leon emphasised the symbiotic relationship and importance of physical, digital, and cultural connectivity to the region’s resilience ecosystem.

“The solution of the whole is through connectivity…we have an immediate problem that needs to be addressed,” he stated.

To that end, he noted that Caribbean institutions must urgently treat with the issue of connectivity beyond throwing money at the problem which he described as a short-term fix.

In advocating for a broader approach to enable industry wide resilience in aviation and the region’s people, the CDB president pressed for broader initiatives beyond investment in aviation in the longer term including the pursuit of innovative tourism and the provision of a more diversified product.

He said the product should be supported by an education system which would promote all areas of the sector and genuinely make tourism a pillar of development.

While reliable, cost-effective air transportation is vital for the Caribbean’s tourism and hospitality industries and economies, Dr Leon maintained that a new paradigm is necessary for viable, sustainable intra-regional air services.

On the matter of innovative tourism products, Dr Leon recommended new offerings which support diverse economic activity and fuel economic growth in the longer term while also generating demand and enabling expansion.

While he maintained that stakeholders take a holistic approach to regional connectivity he admitted that investment in regional travel continues to be a significant obstacle.

He said the investment being sought after in this case should be comprehensive and sustained in order to support broader efforts by the CDB and governments to increase economic resilience, strengthen trade and positively impact the lives of Caribbean people.

“There is only one problem that we need to solve and that one problem we can loosely define as sustainable livelihoods of the people of the region,” he stated.

He added that there was a need for investment in operational and other aspects of the travel industry.

He said this required appropriate financing mechanisms which would accommodate the cycles of the aviation industry, the establishment of an enabling environment with the requisite multilateral agreements in force alongside the strategic development of the sector and the institutionalisation of sufficient safeguards to ensure its sustainability.

In the meantime, he reiterated that the CDB continues to promote innovative options and beneficial partnerships for financing and managing regional air transportation in circumstances where air travel has become inconvenient, costly with limited overall connectivity.

IATA’s Caribbean Aviation Day addressed various issues around aviation sustainability and multi-destination tourism, with the aim of identifying opportunities to jointly rebuild a more competitive air transport sector.