Wason spoke at the Fifth Annual Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference held April 17-19 at the World Trade Center in Curacao where attendees reached a consensus that other problems facing the Caribbean hospitality industry include safety and security and the recent cutback in the number of flights from Europe. Those weren't the only concerns, however.

Ralph Taylor, president of the Caribbean Hotel Association, noted that, over the last 20 years, the number of area hotel rooms has grown from 84,000 to 232,000, when the Mexican Caribbean is included. This amounts to an annual growth rate of nearly 9%, 4% above that of anywhere else. Over the next decade, the number of hotel rooms in the region should more than double, to 500,000 rooms, he says.

If this rate of increase falters, however, local economies could face serious difficulties, Taylor says. "Tourism has established itself as the sector that contributes the most income to the Caribbean. We are talking about, depending on the country, revenues ranging from 30% to 75%," he notes. If the 9% growth rate is not met, services such as health care, employment assistance and educational needs might suffer, he predicted.