EX TURKS AND CAICOS DEPUTY PREMIER WARNS OF OVER-RELIANCE ON TOURISM

By Staff Writer

A former deputy premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has sparked a renewed debate about over-reliance on tourism as an economic pillar in the aftermath of the devastation in western Jamaica caused by Hurricane Melissa.

Damage estimates by the World Bank put the cost to Jamaica at around US$8 billion, with the tourism-dependent part of the country being hardest hit.

Speaking in the Turks and Caicos Parliament, Akierra Missick, a backbencher with the ruling Progressive National Party(PNP), warned that “tourism can be gone in the blink of an eye”, referring to the impact on the industry and national economies of natural disasters in Montserrat and Jamaica.

Calling for economic diversification in the TCI, she pointed to other sister UK Overseas Territories where a multi-pronged economy provides an important buffer to certain shocks, especially natural disasters. 

The British Virgin Islands has International Business (IBCs - International Business Companies). Cayman has banking. Bermuda has insurance.

Hurricanes can mash-up the place, but those industries survive. But for us, a Melissa, a Maria, an Irma, an Ike can wipe out our entire tourism product and set us back years,” she stated, pointing to the vulnerability of tourism-reliant TCI.

“Tourism can be gone in the blink of an eye,” the backbench MP and lawyer warned while urging that other revenue sources be considered to ensure economic diversity.

“We would still have a country to fund: health, education, social services, the police, the courts. Everyone who relies on the public purse needs us to find another avenue forward…We need a niche product uniquely Turks and Caicos - something that will sustain us whether storms come or not,” she urged.

Montserrat, once a global attraction for major rock stars with its world-famous AIR Studios and upscale villa-based tourism, suffered a double blow of natural disasters - Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the eruption of its volcano six years later in 1995.

Jamaica is reeling from Hurricane Melissa despite valiant efforts underway to capitalise on the peak winter tourism season in areas not seriously affected by the hurricane or otherwise not affected at all.

UK territory Montserrat is still struggling to recover and is still dependent on UK budgetary aid more than 30 years after the eruption of the volcano.

Other single-pillar economy tourism-dependent islands impacted by hurricanes have taken years to rebound, some more effectively than others, as is the case with the Dutch and French territory of Sint Maarten/St Martin.

MP Missick suggested that TCI may well have reached its saturation point for new hotel developments, with the added concern of their exposure to worsening natural disasters compounded by climate change.

“Let us be innovative and push the envelope to find a niche product that is Turks and Caicos and will sustain any form of natural disaster that may approach these islands...Even Anguilla beat us with dot-AI, and they will get revenue for years to come.”

Akierra Missick has served as Deputy Premier and Minister of Education from 2012 to 2016 and Leader of Government Business and Minister of Infrastructure from 2021 to 2022. A practising lawyer, she has represented the TCI Leeward and Long Bay constituency since 2012.