Tourism in the Caribbean: competitiveness, upgrading, linkages and the role of public private partnerships (PPP) and public policy

The main purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the contributions that publicprivate
partnerships and public policy have made in the development of tourism in the Caribbean
as tools for enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean tourism industry. The paper explores
these contributions mainly in the context of the upgrading strategies that Caribbean countries
have pursued over the past 15 years or so and using the lens of the tourism value chain and
tourism cluster approach. The paper also analyzes the potential roles that public-private
partnerships and public policy will continue to play in the future especially in the process of
building linkages between the tourism sector and other sectors in order to increase net benefits
from tourism to the Region.
This paper is divided into five sections. In Section I, we define public-private
partnerships (PPP) and describe the areas in tourism where PPP are most widely used, the tools
used to implement PPP in tourism and the various forms of PPP. Economic arguments are then
laid to motivate PPP as a determinant of tourism competitiveness using the tourism value-chain
and tourism cluster approach. Specific case examples illustrating the contributions of PPP and
public policy towards increasing tourism competitiveness are provided at a regional level and for
specific areas in Sections II and III respectively. Section IV summarizes findings from the
previous two sections and discusses ways to enhance the effectiveness of PPP and public policy
in Caribbean tourism for increased competitiveness. Section V analyzes a few of the challenges
that the Caribbean tourism sector is facing. The final section proposes new areas of intervention
for PPP and public policy as tools for enhancing competitiveness in the Caribbean tourism sector
in order to assist the region in addressing these challenges.