Analysis of market conditions for logistics services and tourism: a Caribbean perspective

The purpose of this paper is an assessment of logistics services and tourism infrastructure in the Caribbean. The objective is to examine the efficiency and competitiveness of the logistics and tourism environment in the region.

Given the low levels of implementation of logistics services in Barbados and Jamaica, this study is exploratory, and it is hoped that future studies can build on this assessment of Barbados and Jamaica, and by extension the Caribbean.

Governments across the Caribbean need to recognize that the development of an effective logistics industry rests with improved technology, a proper legislative framework, the development of competent human resources and modern infrastructure development.

The study was limited to Barbados and Jamaica, and so it is not representative of the rest of the Caribbean, as economies like Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic have stronger trans-shipment and cruise tourism activities.

With the low pace of logistics development in the Caribbean, the demand for logistic services, which involve planning, managing and executing the movement of goods and information within global supply chains, will continue to be largely by firms’ desire to outsource some or all logistics-related activities to specialists.

The need to plan for the development of a competent and certified pool of human resources to support the development of a logistics and tourism industry is critical. This therefore requires the development of specialized skills, knowledge and the competence of a flexible and agile workforce.

The focus on Barbados and Jamaica provide an adequate picture of the logistics markets and regulatory frameworks in different contexts of the Caribbean, including an economy directly connected with the global marketplace with a relatively diversified product structure, and another less extensively connected and diversified product structure.