The Caribbean audience or clientele is being underserved when it comes to reporting about tourism related news.
The WITT Report has been collecting and archiving news reports about Caribbean tourism for nearly five years. Here is a look under the hood, at some ways that local media are delivering local tourism news.
The WITT Report calculates that "on any given day an average of between two to nearly three articles out of a hundred articles that appear across all Caribbean news outlets include the keyword [ tourism ] in the title or the first couple of lines in the body of the news item". Average number of news items that include keyword [ tourism ].
The first part of this report includes EMM aggregated news service for all Caribbean media captured in it's system plus all Caribbean news media outlets where the web service has an RSS feed. Data is shown in Table 1.
Data is based on archived reports within this reporting system:
There are [ 63163 ] news items that include keyword: [ tourism ] in a total of [ 243602 ] news items in these reports. In other words, 'tourism' appears somewhere in about 25.9% of news items in these archives. The keyword must appear in the title or in the first one or two lines of the body of the news item, just as the news item would appear in the news outlet's RSS feed.
However, looking at the daily averages presents a somewhat different take:
So, the average percentage of news items that include the keyword [ tourism ] on any given day in the EMM reports during this entire period varies between a low of 2.0% to a high of 2.9%. That is, to restate slightly differently: "on any given day, out of a hundred articles that appear across all Caribbean news outlets, an average of between two to nearly three articles include the keyword [ tourism ] in the title or the first couple of lines in the body of the news item".
The WITT Report uses the Europe Media Monitor as a major component of its news gathering. The method for capturing EMM news was changed on December 22, 2021. Around this time, the EMM service changed the description content of the RSS feeds they supplied to include only keywords and not the actual content of the news item. The keywords are selected by the EMM. Due to the change, the total number of items in the EMM feeds is lower resulting in a higher ratio of items with keyword in them but the total number of items with keyword remains about the same.
It is not really possible to draw any firm conclusions from this calculation except to say that the subject of 'tourism' within Caribbean media seems to have a low importance. However, significant numbers of the populations of these countries are either directly or indirectly employed within the tourism sector. This might mean that this audience or clientele is being underserved when it comes to reporting about tourism related news. This audience probably still reads the local news through these news outlets but is aware that there is no to very little content of tourism related news. These readers will need to seek out tourism related news elsewhere. It should be pointed out that for Caribbean readers to be reliant on outside sources for Caribbean news is analagous to the fox guarding the henhouse.
Here is a look at the distribution of news items categorised by the media outlet as they appear in EMM news feeds. Jamaica dominates in this distribution, notably with three outlets in the top ten. The top twenty news outlets deliver just under 70% of all news. Outside the top ten, except for Nation News Barbados, all of these services appear a below average number of times. Report made August 4, 2022.
Table 1: Media outlets in EMM Tourism RSS Reports by # of items that include keyword [ tourism ] | |||||
Name of Media Outlet | Media URL | Count | Find Ratio (See note 1) |
Notes | |
1 |
Jamaica Observer | jamaicaobserver.com | 34,306 |
6.83% |
|
2 |
Dominican Today - Dominican Republic | dominicantoday.com | 30,078 |
5.99% |
|
3 |
Jamaica Gleaner - Latest News | jamaica-gleaner.com | 25,653 |
5.11% |
|
4 |
St. Maarten Daily Herald | thedailyherald.sx | 25,573 |
5.09% |
|
5 |
Prensa Latina Cuba - English | plenglish.com | 24,141 |
4.81% |
|
6 |
The Tribune - Bahamas | tribune242.com | 22,729 |
4.52% |
|
7 |
The Nassau Guardian | thenassauguardian.com | 19,409 |
3.86% |
|
8 |
St. Kitts and Nevis Observer | thestkittsnevisobserver.com | 18,994 |
3.78% |
|
9 |
Trinidad & Tobago Newsday | newsday.co.tt | 18,947 |
3.77% |
Top ten |
10 |
Jamaica Government Information Service | jis.gov.jm | 18,801 |
3.74% |
47.50% |
11 |
Nation News Barbados | nationnews.com | 15,055 |
3.00% |
|
12 |
Cayman Compass | caymancompass.com | 13,216 |
2.63% |
Average varies between a low of 2.0% to a high of 2.9% |
13 |
The Voice - Saint Lucia | thevoiceslu.com | 12,649 |
2.52% |
|
14 |
Channel 5 Belize.com | edition.channel5belize.com | 12,076 |
2.40% |
|
15 |
Caribbean News Global - St Lucia | caribbeannewsglobal.com | 11,366 |
2.26% |
|
16 |
Virgin Islands Daily News | virginislandsdailynews.com | 10,821 |
2.15% |
|
17 |
Antigua Observer | antiguaobserver.com | 10,532 |
2.10% |
|
18 |
NOW-Grenada | nowgrenada.com | 9,563 |
1.90% |
|
19 |
HTS News 4orce - St Lucia | htsstlucia.org | 9,376 |
1.87% |
Top twenty |
20 |
Government of Barbados Information Service | gisbarbados.gov.bb | 8,288 |
1.65% |
69.98% |
21 |
Trinidad and Tobago Express | trinidadexpress.com | 8,188 |
1.63% |
|
22 |
The Anguillian | theanguillian.com | 8,028 |
1.60% |
|
23 |
DR1 Dominican Republic News & Travel Information Service | dr1.com | 7,671 |
1.53% |
|
24 |
Caribbean 360 | caribbean360.com | 7,660 |
1.53% |
Service discontinued |
25 |
ZNS Bahamas | znsbahamas.com | 7,543 |
1.50% |
|
26 |
The Barbados Advocate | barbadosadvocate.com | 6,616 |
1.32% |
|
27 |
St. Lucia Star | stluciastar.com | 6,262 |
1.25% |
|
28 |
Searchlight St. Vincent | searchlight.vc | 6,059 |
1.21% |
|
29 |
Trinidad Guardian Newspaper | guardian.co.tt | 6,059 |
1.21% |
|
30 |
CNC3 Television - Trinidad | cnc3.co.tt | 5,675 |
1.13% |
|
31 |
The San Pedro Sun | sanpedrosun.com | 5,482 |
1.09% |
|
32 |
ABS TV News | abstvradio.com | 5,045 |
1.00% |
|
33 |
National Broadcasting Corporation | nbcsvg.com | 4,755 |
0.95% |
|
34 |
CCN TV6 - Trinidad | tv6tnt.com | 4,485 |
0.89% |
|
35 |
Jones Bahamas | jonesbahamas.com | 3,684 |
0.73% |
Service discontinued |
36 |
Periodico 26 English - Cuba | periodico26.cu | 2,531 |
0.50% |
|
37 |
Ambergris Today - Belize | ambergristoday.com | 2,467 |
0.49% |
|
38 |
HPN Haiti.com | hpnhaiti.com | 1,792 |
0.36% |
|
39 |
The Montserrat Reporter | themontserratreporter.com | 1,532 |
0.31% |
|
40 |
The Vincentian | thevincentian.com | 1,450 |
0.29% |
|
41 |
Jamaica Star | jamaica-star.com | 1,387 |
0.28% |
|
42 |
Loop News Jamaica | jamaica.loopnews.com | 1,325 |
0.26% |
|
43 |
Cuba Net | cubanet.org/english | 1,315 |
0.26% |
|
44 |
Caribbean News Agency - Barbados | cananewsonline.com | 1,280 |
0.26% |
|
45 |
The Grenada Informer | thegrenadainformer.com/news | 1,130 |
0.23% |
|
46 |
Radio Caribbean International (RCI St. Lucia) | rcistlucia.com | 893 |
0.18% |
|
47 |
Radio Television Caraibes | rtvc.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com | 693 |
0.14% |
Service discontinued |
48 |
Amandala - Belize | amandala.com.bz | 668 |
0.13% |
|
49 |
Belize Guardian | guardian.bz | 517 |
0.10% |
|
50 |
Voice of Barbados | vob929.com | 452 |
0.09% |
|
51 |
The New Today - Grenada | thenewtoday.gd | 444 |
0.09% |
|
52 |
Belize Reporter | reporter.bz | 348 |
0.07% |
|
53 |
The Freeport News | thefreeportnews.com | 276 |
0.06% |
redirects to thenassauguardian.com |
54 |
Haitian Truth | haitian-truth.org | 248 |
0.05% |
|
55 |
Spice Islander - Grenada | spiceislander.com | 219 |
0.04% |
|
56 |
Stabroek News - Guyana | stabroeknews.com | 140 |
0.03% |
|
57 |
Repeating Islands (Puerto Rico/New York) | repeatingislands.com | 120 |
0.02% |
not strictly local |
58 |
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation - Barbados | cbc.bb | 6 |
0.00% |
|
59 |
7 News Belize | 7newsbelize.com | 0 |
0.00% |
|
60 |
Go Jamaica | go-jamaica.com | 0 |
0.00% |
|
Total articles in all EMM reports: 502,394; Total articles with no keyword: 36,376 |
Total articles in this report | 466,018 |
1.55% |
Average |
Table 2: News reports by day of week | Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
Weekly |
Total number of news items | 78,151 |
69,935 |
71,077 |
74,301 |
69,724 |
71,775 |
67,431 |
502,394 |
News items that include keyword | 76,697 |
69,336 |
70,471 |
73,441 |
69,156 |
71,139 |
66,851 |
497,091 |
Find ratio | 98.14% |
99.14% |
99.15% |
98.84% |
99.19% |
99.11% |
99.14% |
98.96% |
Daily find ratio | 15.27% |
13.92% |
14.03% |
14.62% |
13.77% |
14.16% |
13.31% |
14.15% |
Table 3: All Media source ratio in archived Full WITT Reports; Sorted by results from highest to lowest. Search was performed on August 12, 2022 | |||||
Name of Media Outlet | Media URL | Count | Find Ratio (See note 1) |
Notes | |
1 |
Jamaica Observer | jamaicaobserver.com | 18272 |
7.50% |
in EMM |
2 |
Jamaica Gleaner | jamaica-gleaner.com | 14253 |
5.85% |
in EMM |
3 |
Antigua Observer | antiguaobserver.com | 14179 |
5.82% |
in EMM |
4 |
The Tribune (Bahamas) | tribune242.com | 11434 |
4.69% |
in EMM |
5 |
St. Martin Daily Herald | thedailyherald.sx | 10949 |
4.50% |
in EMM |
6 |
Trinidad & Tobago Newsday | newsday.co.tt | 9498 |
3.90% |
in EMM |
7 |
The Nassau Guardian | thenassauguardian.com | 9096 |
3.73% |
in EMM |
8 |
Dominican Today (Dominican Republic) | dominicantoday.com | 6642 |
2.73% |
in EMM |
9 |
The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer | thestkittsnevisobserver.com | 6434 |
2.64% |
in EMM |
10 |
Trinidad Express | trinidadexpress.com | 4894 |
2.01% |
in EMM |
11 |
Jamaica Government Information Service | jis.gov.jm | 4746 |
1.95% |
Official government site; in EMM |
12 |
Caribbean News Global (St Lucia) | caribbeannewsglobal.com | 4446 |
1.83% |
in EMM |
13 |
The Voice (St Lucia) | thevoiceslu.com | 4430 |
1.82% |
in EMM |
14 |
Virgin Islands Daily News | virginislandsdailynews.com | 4277 |
1.76% |
in EMM |
15 |
Barbados Advocate | barbadosadvocate.com | 3795 |
1.56% |
in EMM |
16 |
Now Grenada | nowgrenada.com | 3499 |
1.44% |
Service discontinued; in EMM |
17 |
Cayman Compass | caymancompass.com | 3451 |
1.42% |
in EMM |
18 |
Nation News (Barbados) | nationnews.com | 2967 |
1.22% |
in EMM |
19 |
The Anguillian | theanguillian.com | 2731 |
1.12% |
in EMM; Good tourism coverage |
20 |
Barbados Government Information Service | gisbarbados.gov.bb | 2700 |
1.11% |
Official government site; in EMM |
21 |
St. Lucia Star | stluciastar.com | 2447 |
1.01% |
in EMM |
22 |
ZNS Bahamas | znsbahamas.com | 2339 |
0.96% |
in EMM |
23 |
Trinidad Guardian Newspaper | guardian.co.tt | 2063 |
0.85% |
RSS discontinued; in EMM |
24 |
Searchlight Newspaper (St Vincent) | searchlight.vc | 2043 |
0.84% |
|
25 |
NBC (St Vincent) | nbcsvg.com | 2034 |
0.84% |
in EMM |
26 |
HTS News 4orce (St Lucia) | htsstlucia.org | 1759 |
0.72% |
in EMM |
27 |
San Pedro Sun (Belize) | sanpedrosun.com | 1728 |
0.709% |
|
28 |
Jones Bahamas | jonesbahamas.com | 1534 |
0.63% |
Service discontinued; in EMM |
29 |
The Royal Gazette (Bermuda) | royalgazette.com | 1310 |
0.54% |
|
30 |
Caribbean 360 | caribbean360.com | 1210 |
0.50% |
Service discontinued; in EMM |
31 |
Jamaica Star | jamaica-star.com | 1193 |
0.49% |
in EMM |
32 |
News is My Business (Puerto Rico) | newsismybusiness.com | 1054 |
0.43% |
|
33 |
Barbados Today | barbadostoday.bb | 1030 |
0.42% |
Good Tourism coverage |
34 |
St. Martin News Network | smn-news.com | 864 |
0.36% |
|
35 |
Times Caribbean Online (St Kitts) | timescaribbeanonline.com | 775 |
0.32% |
|
36 |
The Grenada Informer | thegrenadainformer.com | 751 |
0.31% |
in EMM |
37 |
Caribbean News Service (Antigua) | caribbeannewsservice.com | 704 |
0.29% |
Good Tourism coverage |
38 |
Montserrat Reporter | themontserratreporter.com | 704 |
0.29% |
in EMM |
39 |
Magnetic Media TV (Turks & Caicos) | magneticmediatv.com | 633 |
0.26% |
RSS is weekly |
40 |
The Dominican | thedominican.net | 507 |
0.21% |
|
41 |
Barbados Underground | barbadosunderground.net | 482 |
0.20% |
|
42 |
Nevis Pages | nevispages.com | 426 |
0.18% |
|
43 |
VI Free Press (US Virgin Islands) | vifreepress.com | 386 |
0.16% |
|
44 |
BES Reporter - News from Bonaire | bes-reporter.com | 385 |
0.16% |
|
45 |
EyeWitness News - Bahamas Latest News | ewnews.com | 385 |
0.16% |
|
46 |
St Lucia Times | stluciatimes.com | 366 |
0.15% |
|
47 |
Aruba Today: Local News | arubatoday.com | 348 |
0.14% |
|
48 |
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (Barbados) | cbc.bb | 345 |
0.14% |
in EMM |
49 |
Dominica Vibes | dominicavibes.dm | 326 |
0.13% |
|
50 |
Spice Islander (Grenada) | spiceislander.com | 319 |
0.13% |
in EMM |
51 |
The Barnacle News (Grenada) | thebarnaclenews.com | 318 |
0.13% |
|
52 |
Dominica News Online | dominicanewsonline.com | 298 |
0.12% |
|
53 |
Radio Caribbean International (RCI) (St Lucia) | rcistlucia.com | 284 |
0.12% |
No regular updates; in EMM |
54 |
Haitian Truth | haitian-truth.org | 272 |
0.11% |
in EMM |
55 |
St. Lucia News Online | stlucianewsonline.com | 226 |
0.09% |
|
56 |
BVI News | bvinews.com | 205 |
0.08% |
|
57 |
St John Tradewinds News (US Virgin Islands) | stjohntradewinds.com | 198 |
0.08% |
|
58 |
BVI Beacon | bvibeacon.com | 196 |
0.08% |
|
59 |
EMO News (Dominica) | emonewsdm.com | 195 |
0.08% |
|
60 |
CANANEWS - CMC, Barbados | cananewsonline.com | 187 |
0.08% |
in EMM |
61 |
The Bahamas Weekly | thebahamasweekly.com | 182 |
0.08% |
|
62 |
Tobago Today | tobagotoday.co.tt | 182 |
0.08% |
Service discontinued; was part of Trinidad Guardian |
63 |
Bahamas Press | bahamaspress.com | 159 |
0.07% |
Service discontinued |
64 |
Business Focus St Lucia | businessfocusstlucia.com | 155 |
0.06% |
Service discontinued |
65 |
The Bahamas Investor | thebahamasinvestor.com | 155 |
0.06% |
Service discontinued |
66 |
VI Consortium (US Virgin Islands) | viconsortium.com | 152 |
0.06% |
RSS discontinued |
67 |
Bajan Reporter (Barbados) | bajanreporter.com | 149 |
0.06% |
|
68 |
Curaçao Chronicle | curacaochronicle.com | 134 |
0.06% |
|
69 |
The Labour Spokesman | thelabourspokesman.com | 123 |
0.05% |
RSS discontinued |
70 |
St Thomas Source | stthomassource.com | 115 |
0.05% |
|
71 |
Saba News | saba-news.com | 109 |
0.05% |
|
72 |
Voice of Barbados News Stories | vob929.com | 109 |
0.05% |
in EMM |
73 |
RJR Gleaner (Jamaica) | rjrnewsonline.com | 80 |
0.03% |
|
74 |
Grenada Broadcast | grenadabroadcast.com | 72 |
0.03% |
Service discontinued in 2020 |
75 |
Repeating Islands (Puerto Rico/New York) | repeatingislands.com | 71 |
0.03% |
Not strictly local; in EMM |
76 |
Island Sun | Local News Archives (BVI) | islandsun.com | 51 |
0.02% |
|
77 |
Cayman News Service | caymannewsservice.com | 50 |
0.02% |
|
78 |
CTV TnT (Trinidad) | ctvtt.com | 41 |
0.02% |
Service discontinued |
79 |
I-Witness News (St Vincent) | iwnsvg.com | 28 |
0.01% |
|
80 |
Cakafete (Dominica) | sakafete.com | 14 |
0.01% |
|
81 |
AnguillaTV: Local News Archives | anguillatv.net | 9 |
0.004% |
RSS discontinued; no updates since 2021-09-21 |
82 |
Cuba Headlines | cubaheadlines.com | 9 |
0.004% |
Not followed - no recent updates |
83 |
Montserrat Government | gov.ms | 8 |
0.00% |
Official government site |
84 |
Bahamas B2B | bahamasb2b.com | 7 |
0.003% |
Service discontinued |
85 |
The New Today | thenewtodaygrenada.com | 5 |
0.00% |
RSS is weekly; in EMM as [ thenewtoday.gd ] |
86 |
Caribbean Commerce | carib-commerce.org | 4 |
0.00% |
Service discontinued |
87 |
Bernews (Bermuda) | bernews.com | 3 |
0.001% |
|
88 |
CARICOM | today.caricom.org | 1 |
0% |
Official regional government site |
89 |
Broad Street Journal (Barbados) | broadstreetjournalbarbados.com | 0 |
0% |
Service discontinued |
90 |
Caribarena (Antigua) | caribarena.com | 0 |
0% |
Service discontinued |
91 |
CHTA | caribbeanhotelandtourism.com | 0 |
0% |
Not followed - no regular updates |
92 |
CTO | caribbeantravel.com | 0 |
0% |
No RSS; Not followed - no regular updates |
93 |
Jamaica Tourism Board | jtbonline.org | 0 |
0% |
Official government tourism site |
94 |
Curacao Official Tourism Site | news.curacao.com | 0 |
0% |
Official government site |
95 |
SVG Today (St Vincent) | svgtoday.com | 0 |
0% |
|
96 |
Tobago House of Assembly | tha.gov.tt | 0 |
0% |
Official government site |
97 |
The Tobago News | thetobagonews.com | 0 |
0% |
Service discontinued |
98 |
Belize Official Tourism Site | travelbelize.org | 0 |
0% |
Official tourism site |
99 |
Turks & Caicos Official Tourism Site | turksandcaicostourism.com | 0 |
0% |
Official tourism site |
100 |
Aruba Official Tourism Site | visitaruba.com | 0 |
0% |
Official tourism site |
101 |
Trinidad Official Tourism Site | visittrinidad.tt | 0 |
0% |
Official tourism site |
102 |
US Virgin Islands Official Tourism Site | visitusvi.com | 0 |
0% |
Official tourism site |
103 |
WINN-FM (St Kitts) | winnmediaskn.com | 0 |
0% |
|
Total in this section | 177699 |
72.94% |
|||
News sources in Full WITT Reports found only in news items captured by EMM | |||||
Name of Media Outlet | Media URL | Count | Find Ratio | Notes | |
1 |
Channel 5 Belize | channel5belize.com | 5501 |
2.26% |
|
2 |
Prensa Latina (Cuba) | plenglish.com | 3845 |
1.58% |
|
3 |
ABS TV News (Antigua) | abstvradio.com | 3546 |
1.46% |
|
4 |
CNC TV6 (Trinidad) | cnc3.co.tt | 3065 |
1.26% |
|
5 |
CNC TV6 (Trinidad) | tv6tnt.com | 1083 |
0.45% |
|
6 |
Perodico 26 (Cuba) | periodico26.cu | 801 |
0.33% |
|
7 |
Amandala (Belize) | amandala.com.bz | 767 |
0.32% |
|
8 |
The Vincentian (St Vincent) | thevincentian.com | 714 |
0.29% |
|
9 |
Stabroek News (Guyana) | stabroeknews.com | 684 |
0.28% |
|
10 |
Loop News (Jamaica) | jamaica.loopnews.com | 663 |
0.27% |
|
11 |
The Guardian (Belize) | guardian.bz | 559 |
0.23% |
|
12 |
Ambergris Cay Today (Belize) | ambergristoday.com | 512 |
0.21% |
|
13 |
** Haiti Libre | haitilibre.com | 128 |
0.05% |
|
14 |
HPN Haiti | hpnhaiti.com | 116 |
0.05% |
|
15 |
Radio Television Caraibes | rtvc.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com | 52 |
0.02% |
Service discontinued |
16 |
The Guyana Chronicle | guyanachronicle.com | 23 |
0.01% |
|
17 |
Television Jamaica | televisionjamaica.com | 10 |
0.00% |
|
18 |
Kaieteur News Online (Guyana) | kaieteurnewsonline.com | 5 |
0.00% |
|
19 |
Boston Haitian | bostonhaitian.com | 4 |
0.00% |
|
Total of news outlets found only in EMM | 22078 |
9.06% |
|||
Total of other language reports | 34479 |
14.154% |
|||
Total of above | 234256 |
96.154% |
|||
** Limited or no English service. |
The FULL WITT Reports have been created to narrow the capture of reports with keyword [ tourism ]. The purpose is to refine the results and place a stronger emphasis on finding relevant news. When looking at the FULL WITT Reports (Table 3), the count of news items with keyword [ tourism ] is [ 63163 ] in a total of [ 243602 ] news items in these reports. This represents a Find ratio of [ 25.929% ]. The 'Today's stories' news ticker on the WITT Report main page is also showing a similar listing of relevant news items.
Notes:
This represents the average across all news outlets that are captured in this reporting system. The data collected or reported is based on the mathematical calculation of total number of news items or news items that include keyword [ tourism ] on a daily basis. The use of the keyword [ tourism ] has been the most effective keyword within this reporting method. Other keywords did not deliver any useful results. Some articles may appear in services that have been discontinued.
Up until December 22, 2021, reports include news items with keyword [ tourism ] within the previous THREE DAYS, after this date, the capture was for the previous ONE DAY.
However:
- The change from three day to one day reporting does not appear to impact the overall results.
- There is no way to calculate for the media outlets that were introduced or were discontinued during this period.
- There are gaps in the reporting periods: from 2018-01-28 to 2018-03-04; from 2019-01-23 to 2019-03-03; from 2020-01-29 to 2020-03-04 and occasionally whenever the EMM server might have been down.
It is also useful to see how often countries are mentioned in these archives. The second part of this report includes ONLY EMM aggregated news reports for all Caribbean news outlets captured in it's system.
EMM search was performed on August 01, 2022 and Full Report search was performed on August 12, 2022
Rank |
Table 4: Ranking of news items in EMM Reports; by Country Name + Variations (Top ten in bold type) |
News items w/ keyword in EMM Reports |
Find ratio (See note 1) |
News items w/ keyword in Full WITT Reports Aug 12, 2022 |
Find ratio (See note 1) |
WorldBank 2018 International Air Arrival Data (MM) |
1 |
Jamaica or J'ca* | 53926 |
10.74% |
21487 |
15.00% |
2.473 |
2 |
Bahamas | 32197 |
6.41% |
10480 |
7.32% |
1.6332 |
3 |
Barbados | 26656 |
5.31% |
8402 |
5.87% |
0.680 |
4 |
Saint Lucia* | 23639 |
4.71% |
7513 |
5.25% |
0.395 |
5 |
Tobago | 22111 |
4.40% |
7667 |
5.35% |
< 0.02 |
6 |
Cuba | 20346 |
4.05% |
14323 |
10.00% |
4.684 |
7 |
Dominican Republic | 19942 |
3.97% |
4816 |
3.36% |
6.569 |
8 |
Antigua | 13258 |
2.64% |
9051 |
6.32% |
0.2693 |
9 |
Trinidad / T'dad* | 13003 |
2.59% |
5375 |
3.75% |
0.3754 |
10 |
Grenada | 11957 |
2.38% |
3946 |
2.76% |
0.185 |
11 |
Cayman (Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman) |
11799 |
2.35% |
2988 |
2.09% |
- |
12 |
- Barbuda | 11632 |
2.32% |
7052 |
4.92% |
- |
13 |
Anguilla | 8411 |
1.68% |
2707 |
1.89% |
- |
14 |
Saint Kitts* | 7813 |
1.56% |
2990 |
2.09% |
0.1255 |
15 |
- Nevis | 7300 |
1.45% |
3109 |
2.17% |
- |
16 |
Aruba | 7121 |
1.42% |
1312 |
0.92% |
1.082 |
17 |
Cayman Islands (See # 11) | 6586 |
1.31% |
1419 |
0.99% |
0.463 |
18 |
Sint Maarten* | 6535 |
1.30% |
3572 |
2.49% |
0.1786 |
19 |
Saint Vincent* | 6532 |
1.30% |
2522 |
1.76% |
0.0807 |
20 |
- Grenadines | 6336 |
1.261 |
2131 |
1.49% |
- |
21 |
- Nassau | 6271 |
1.25% |
2133 |
1.49% |
- |
22 |
Virgin Islands | 4283 |
0.85% |
1939 |
1.35% |
- |
23 |
British Virgin Islands / BVI* | 3403 |
0.68% |
1283 |
0.90% |
0.192 |
24 |
Puerto Rico | 3324 |
0.66% |
2621 |
1.83% |
3.068 |
25 |
Haiti | 2569 |
0.51% |
1048 |
0.73% |
0.447 |
26 |
CARICOM | 2542 |
0.51% |
2253 |
1.57% |
- |
27 |
Saint Eustatius* / Statia | 2417 |
0.48% |
942 |
0.66% |
- |
28 |
OECS | 2305 |
0.46% |
835 |
0.58% |
- |
29 |
Saint Martin* | 2256 |
0.05% |
728 |
0.58% |
- |
30 |
US Virgin Islands / USVI / US VI* | 2115 |
0.42% |
887 |
0.62% |
0.381 |
31 |
Montserrat | 1680 |
0.33% |
1054 |
0.74% |
- |
32 |
Bermuda | 1360 |
0.27% |
1231 |
0.86% |
0.282 |
33 |
Martinique | 1120 |
0.22% |
351 |
0.25% |
- |
34 |
Saba | 1119 |
0.22% |
578 |
0.40% |
- |
35 |
Dominica | 882 |
0.18% |
1174 |
0.82% |
0.063 |
36 |
Turks and Caicos Islands* | 871 |
0.17% |
174 |
0.12% |
0.441 |
37 |
Bonaire | 527 |
0.11% |
547 |
0.38% |
- |
38 |
Dutch Caribbean | 361 |
0.07% |
291 |
0.20% |
- |
39 |
Guadeloupe | 333 |
0.07% |
157 |
0.11% |
- |
40 |
Curacao | 267 |
0.05% |
95 |
0.07% |
0.432 |
41 |
French Caribbean | 228 |
0.05% |
43 |
0.03% |
- |
42 |
Saint Barthelemy* | 59 |
0.01% |
1 |
0.00% |
- |
Saint Barthélemy* | Not found |
|||||
Total articles in this report | 357,392 |
143227 |
The number of mentions is not directly related to the popularity of the destination but rather may offer a clue as to how well destination managers are getting the word out to local Caribbean news media regarding their destination. This data may reflect the importance of the destination in how local destination managers as well as local news media report on tourism related news. Some articles may appear without mentioning the country name.
Jamaica has the most reports with 53,926 out of a total of 502,269 articles archived during this period, or 10.74% of all articles. Also, the number of days shows that Jamaica was mentioned in 1797 reports. This means that Jamaica was present in the news often, probably a daily basis. This is more than the total number of reports (1729), so most likely Jamaica or it's variant [ J'ca ] are mentioned more than once in the same news report. Jamaica also has the most English language media outlets.
Jamaica does not receive the highest number of international arrivals and yet is ranked at # 1 in mentions in news items in these reports. This may be due to the newsworthiness of Jamaica as a destination such as when news items mention 'Sandals/Beaches' or 'Negril' or 'Ocho Rios', as examples. It may also be related to how well Jamaica news services talk about their tourism as well as to how well they distribute their news. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Because Jamaica has a high visibility in tourism news reporting means that local people as well as visitors are more likely to benefit, and be better informed, from this heightened presence.
This number is more than 67% higher than the next one which is Bahamas and double to triple, or more, than any other number in the top ten. This demonstrates that Jamaica is highly motivated to keep its presence in local media at a high level and has been successful in doing so for an extended period, nearly five years as shown here but certainly longer than this. It is a target worth shooting for by most Caribbean destinations.
While Jamaica exceeds the average by four to five times, all of the top ten destinations exceed the average for results within this reporting method. Except for Barbuda, the other countries shown do not appear with a frequency above the average. Barbuda may be an anomaly with it normally being stated as 'Antigua and Barbuda'. Most tourism to this country is to Antigua, hence the way the name has been shown here.
In another case, according to 'Caribbean & Co.', Dominican Republic, Cuba, along with Jamaica are top of the list of the 10 Most Visited Caribbean Islands. However, 'Tobago' is mentioned more often than the Dominican Republic or Cuba in these news reports. So, this emphasises that the frequency of mentions is not related to the popularity of the destination. In fact, despite 'Tobago' being mentioned more than these other places, it only garners a small fraction of the visitor arrivals that these other places get.
WorldBank international air arrival data for 2018 shows the most popular Caribbean destinations in that year were Dominican Republic (6.569MM arrivals) (# 7), Cuba (4.684MM arrivals) (# 6) and Jamaica (2.473MM arrivals) (# 1). So, while the Dominican Republic had the highest arrival numbers it only ranks at position # 7 in the frequency of news items. This data does not include arrivals by cruise ship.
As we explore the numbers further, out of the top ten countries in the ranking above: The Bahamas had 1.633MM arrivals (# 2), Barbados had .68MM (# 3), Saint Lucia had .395MM (# 4), Antigua had .269MM (# 8). Trinidad and Tobago combined had .375MM arrivals (# 9) with arrival data for Tobago from the Central Statistical Office showing less than 20,000 arrivals for 2018. And lastly, Grenada had .185MM arrivals (# 10).
Clearly, name mentions in local media do not correspond to arrival data and do not appear to be a factor in influencing arrival numbers. There are other forces at play such as availability of flights and room stock as well as advertising in source markets. Populations size, as mentioned, is also an important factor. So, whereas a large island such as Puerto Rico can expect to receive a high number of international arrivals, just based on relative size of its diaspora, a smaller country such as Barbados does not have such a large diaspora or expat community to draw on.
Outside the top ten grouping, the number of mentions is below the average to even hardly being mentioned at all. Destinations in the lower part of the lower group do not substantially benefit from exposure in local media. The result may also be related to fewer news outlets being available from these destinations. More mentions of these destinations in relating tourism stories with positive outcomes is almost certain to bring heightened awareness.
Another anomaly pertains to language. The other islands such as Guadeloupe and Martinique where English is not the primary language have a lower ranking in the frequency of related news. All of these islands are very popular but because the archived EMM reports mainly include English speaking news services, the occurrence of the predominantly French destinations is not accurately reflected. These countries might benefit by offering more English news services.
Take the much higher arrivals performance of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, which are primarily Spanish speaking countries. It is possible that the distribution of news from these countries in English has an impact in increasing awareness in English speaking markets. Both of these destinations receive more visitors than Jamaica so there are also other factors contributing to the higher arrival numbers.
Conversely, Puerto Rico had 3.068MM arrivals, the third highest, yet manages only position # 24 in the ranking of new items. The number of arrivals is most likely related to the population of the country (3.0MM in 2018, worldometer.info) and suggests most arrivals are returning diaspora / visiting friends and relatives. Puerto Rico does not distribute much tourism news in English which may be the main factor in dropping it's position to # 24.
Aruba had 1.082MM arrivals vs Antigus with .269MM, nearly four time higher, yet was in position # 16 vs # 8 for Antigua. Again, the language in Aruba is not English but rather is Papiamento, so availability of tourism news in English will be less.
Of all the people employed in the Travel & Tourism sector, most likely the largest group will be people employed in service jobs in hotels, restaurants, bed & breakfast and so on. These people may not be interested in tourism news, per se. There is, however, a very important group that cannot be filtered out of the employment data too easily. This group would be the taxi drivers and tour guides. Another group may be those who are employed at a community level providing art and craft or other souvenir items. These people may be more interested in finding out about current affairs as relates to their own businesses. They may also find news about competitors interesting so as to learn more about best practices or successful ventures.
Clearly, there can be an enormous benefit to promoting these people and heightening the awareness of the services they provide. In particular visitors may be interested to hear about these people. Press releases and news items by local reporters supplied to local media would help in increasing information available. This may be happening sporadically but more can be done.
Also, as the Caribbean Tourism Organisation states in its byline: 'One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean', there is an opportunity to align with more over-arching goals of bringing Caribbean peoples together as well as to co-promote. Broadcasting this message with more force may help to elevate the value of Caribbean tourism news, in general.
In 2018, according to the WTTC, Travel & Tourism contributed 15.5% to Caribbean GDP. This translated into 2.4MM Jobs (or 13.5% or 1 in 7.4). Leisure spending represented 89% of total visitor spending which was $35.4BN USD. But only 27% of this money was spent domestically.
"The Caribbean is the region most reliant on Travel & Tourism globally. In fact, eight out of the ten most tourism-dependent countries globally in 2019 were in the Caribbean region. Between 2010 and 2019, although the sector’s average annual growth rate of 3% outpaced the regional economy growth of 1.3%, it lagged behind the global average Travel & Tourism growth of 4.2%. This shows that the region’s potential for tourism growth has not been fully exploited due to challenges such as a lack of air connectivity, the high cost of air travel, and a need for more investment in digital solutions, infrastructure and human capital, better crisis preparedness and a focus on environmental protection. ...
This growth in GDP and jobs could only be achieved if governments in the Caribbean, in collaboration with private sector and local communities, implement initiatives and policies such as lowering aviation fees, strengthening intra-regional collaboration, and investing in digital and physical infrastructure including airports, cruise ports and ground transportation. They also need to focus on enhancing sustainability, recruiting and retaining the workforce, diversifying product offers, and increasing preparedness for future crises. This will improve the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Caribbean as a destination in years to come." (Foreword by Julia Simpson, Travel & Tourism in the Caribbean: Prospects for Growth, WTTC, 2022
All through this WTTC report, recommendations are made for enhancing air connectivity, human capital and skills, intra-regional collaboration, physical infrastructure, crisis preparedness, sustainability and environmental protection.
"Overall, to improve environmental protection, governments need to revise the incentive framework, enhance waste management infrastructure, and invest in public education and awareness-raising initiatives." (Ibid)
While it seems reasonable that local media have a role in enhancing the distribution of information related to these topics, as can be surmised from the above data, this does not seem to be the reality on the ground. This appears to be especially the case in the smaller islands. There appears to be a disconnect between tourism activity and tourism news reporting. So, the question as to how tourism news reporting relates to tourism dependency is an open one. In Caribbean countries, these things do not appear to be related.
As well, the political and ideological inclinations of the owners or editors of the media outlets might also have a bearing in what gets reported and how it is reported.
An opportunity also presents for governments keen on investing in public education and awareness-raising initiatives to consider partnering with local media who already have established audiences and communication channels. But, regardless of any cooperation between governments, destination managers and media, it is certain that media outlets play an important and valuable role. Part of this role may be in distributing relevant government or destination news. However, another part may be interpreting this news, to make it more easily understandable and to demonstrate alignment with other stated social, environmental and economic objectives. A third part might be in showing how this news relates to local communities and businesses.
And, while there may be an appetite for tourism reporting amongst the local populations, it would also follow that the 50MM, or so, visitors that reach Caribbean shores might also be interested in reading about local tourism news. Up to the minute information about local events, tourist sites or venues would be highly sought after. Tourist brochures can only do this in a more general way and are not updated frequently enough to supply current information.
Again, this market may be underserved by local media. So, when the discussion about partnerships comes up, it makes sense for government agencies, destination managers, local suppliers and media outlets to partner in distributing news to airports, local hotels, shopping areas and other places where tourists are likely to congregate. This would include any digital outlets available but first visitors must know about these outlets.
It is important to note that there are plenty of websites available where tourism news can be found. However, for an interested party to endeavour to find these websites in a timely manner and to capture relevant, up to date news is sometimes not so easy. Most readers, especially visitors, are using their smartphones or tablets, so the news must be presented in a compatible format. And, despite the popularity of facebook, this platform still does not reach the majority of readers. According to Internet World Stats, 43,860,773 is the 2022 population estimate for the Caribbean region. (28 countries) There are 18,186,915 facebook subscribers in these countries as of Feb 8/22 which represents a 41.5% penetration rate. There is no estimate of how many facebook subscribers use it to read local news.
In fact, the shift to facebook as a platform for local news may be misguided. Facebook is first a social platform and then to a lesser degree a source of information. Facebook can be seen as an influencer and sometimes in ways that compete with and/or do not benefit local interests. Whereas the local news outlets can be seen as leaders and have the right to promote themselves in this way. Also, publishers are vulnerable to any changes facebook makes and some changes may be detrimental. In this article, while it is not possible to ignore this readership, it is ...
"suggested that publishers have relied too much on Facebook and haven’t spent enough time developing their homepage audience and growing the number of newsletter subscribers – a harsh truth, maybe, but an issue not unfamiliar to those of us who’ve spent the last few years at the mercy of the platform’s changing settings and algorithms".
It may be possible to infer from this that reliance on outside services does not deliver news in a complete way, one that complements the real needs of Caribbean people. The use of digital technology must respond to this basic reality. In other words, if the audience is looking for 'social' news, a social platform might suffice, however readers looking for topical news won't be provided for. It is also certain that potential advertising revenue is being sent to American companies, a portion of which, at least, might be better spent in local media.
The WITT Report header has, since its inception, emphasised the importance of the availability of quality tourism news:
One possible partnership arrangement can be to include the distribution of tourism news with a combined content from various sources, such as:
The sweet spot for tourism news brings together news from a variety of sources. The most obvious carriers/distributors for news are the news media themselves in cooperation with other local services. The availability of tourism news can be constructed to benefit a large proportion of local people including businesses, communities and the media themselves.
News that is accurate, authoritative, credible, engaging, entertaining, informative, interesting, positive, meaningful —without being gossipy or salacious. Such news when supplied by a reliable source will always be in demand and it appeals to a more sophisticated audience. This audience, with money to spend and looking for places to go, clearly exists and writing directed to it is certain to be popular. The goal is to become that reliable source.
The accurate representation of Caribbean culture(s) is also of critical importance. Visitors not only want to see, hear or read Caribbean cultural stories but also these become one of the primary attractors for customers in feeder markets. Stories about people, food, history or music, as examples, can be a valuable connection point when visitors arrive in the destination.
This article shows that Caribbean news outlets do have significant opportunities in becoming a gathering point for much relevant news and also to simplify the overall process. With Travel & Tourism having become the most important economic sector for all Caribbean countries, making tourism related news easier to find can deliver positive results for all concerned. The outcome may be higher readership and a reshaping of the awareness the tourism sector as well as reliability in being a source for tourism news. However, the delivery of news must be in the format that the public is looking for. A key issue for some countries seems to relate to the availability of tourism news in English.
In the smaller islands, where advertising and promotional budgets are limited, the local media have a heightened role to play in assisting marketing of local tourism offerings. There is a significant potential for collaboration to improve the awareness and increase coverage of tourism related news.
All in all, even from this cursory overview, there does seem to be unexploited opportunities for local media outlets to develop new markets and audiences as well as to partner in expanding availability of tourism related news in the Caribbean. The WITT Report has undertaken to fill a need that is clearly not being catered to but the availability of tourism related news first must be delivered by the news media themselves. It is my carefully considered opinion that the objective of serving more and better quality tourism news will bring benefits to all forms of Caribbean tourism operators, and is likely to benefit local residents as well as visitors and other interested parties.
Here is a list of Official Caribbean Tourism Information Sources
Notes:
On August 1, 2022, there were [ 1729 ] archived EMM Tourism RSS Reports to search. Each report is for a single day. The total number of news items on this date = [ 502,269 ]
Note 1. Find ratio = Total news items found with keyword/Total number of news items.
This is the percentage of times that the country name was mentioned in all 1729 EMM reports. [ MM ] indicates millions. [ - ] indicates no data.
Note 2. Arrival data includes Nassau.
Note 3. Arrival data includes Barbuda.
There are [ 10111 ] news items that include keyword: [ Antigua and Barbuda ]; Find ratio: [ 2.013% ] and there are [ 264 ] reports with results.
There are [ 157 ] news items that include keyword: [ Antigua & Barbuda ]; Find ratio: [ 0.031% ] and there are only [ 140 ] reports with results.
Note 4. Arrival data includes Tobago.
Note 5. Arrival data includes Nevis.
Note 6. Arrival data includes Saint Martin.
Note 7. St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Local news media can use name variations in their news reports. Sometimes these are the name that is most familiar to local readers. Name variations for countries identified by 'Saint' include Saint, St and St. prefixes. For Sint Maarten, variations may be 'Sint' ot St or St. prefixes.
* It is possible that name variations are mentioned on the same day or in the same news item. Total may by more than total number of reports.