Chavez - file

CASTRIES, St. Lucia (CMC):

President of the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, Allen Chastanet, says the Caribbean's position to back Venezuela over Guatemala for a seat on the United Nations Security Council may have influenced the United States' decision to amend the Western Hemis-phere Travel Initiative.

The amendment delays the implementation of the new passport requirements until June 1, 2009, for land crossings at the Mexican and Canadian borders and for cruise passengers coming to the U.S. from the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada or Bermuda.

But it still requires all U.S. citizens travelling by air to these regions to have a passport by January 8, next year.

The U.S. move has been criticised by leading regional tourism officials.

"It is very likely that our alliance with (President Hugo) Chávez and the whole Security Council issue where we came out in support of the Venezuela leader against the Americans could be the determining factor," he told the Caribbean Media Corporation on Wednesday.

"You can also throw in our position with Cuba, although there are several other nations that share that position, but certainly Chavez going to the UN and making derogatory remarks about the President of the U.S., has received the wrath of the American public," Chastanet said.

He said that the decision by Washington would pose a devastating blow to the Caribbean, which was already finding it difficult to compete on a cost basis with the cruise industry and Mexico, and the cheap airfares from the United States.

"This is only going to add a lot of salt to a very sore wound," he said.

Chastanet said it was a fact that nearly 90 per cent of Americans do not have a passport and the process involved in obtaining one was expensive.

"Its actually a nuisance factor which Americans are not compelled to undertake if they are travelling to Mexico or embarking on a cruise, I think our industry is going to be substantially hurt."

Chastanet said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) kept talking about regionalism but it refuses to act as a region, noting that CARICOM had done a rather poor job in lobbying the US government on the passport issue.

"I have heard some Prime Ministers saying that this was not a critical issue and clearly it was not given the necessary priority," he noted.

He said that the cruise lines on the other hand realising the impact this was likely to have, lobbied all the way to the twenty fourth hour, to have the amendment delayed or changed.

But Chastanet said there was still time to have the issue reversed. "But it is still an urgent matter and if we are going to successfully appeal to the Americans and bureaucrats it is going to take the effort of the entire region."