Evaluation Report Organizing Committee Curaao

2007

Social-economic Impact Caribbean Gift and Craft Show 2007

Criteria The qualitative and quantitative criteria that have been fixed to test the social economic impact of the Caribbean Gift and Craft Show are: 1. Participation 2. Sales & Employment 3. Social contribution Point of departure analysis The analysis is based on data information from the statistics of Curaao Tourist Board, Curaao Hospitality and Tourism Association and Curaao Airport Partners and some records from the show kept by the Curaao Organization Committee and Caribbean Export Development Agency. It should be noted that no directed datainformation has been gathered for this event. Other than recordings on the actual show, capacity development and economic development indicators over the whole month of September were used as starting point for the analysis. In other words, some other factors outside the scope of this analysis can influence the statistical indicators over the month of September 2006 and 2007 in this analysis. Because of this, only a limited indication can be provided of the impact the Caribbean Gift and Craft Show 2007. Capacity development indicators The following sub indicators can be distinguished as capacity development indicators: number of exhibitors number of buyers number of visitors to the show stay over visitor arrivals and the country of origin total nights by country of origin hotel occupancy

Economic development indicators The following sub indicators can be distinguished as economic development indicators: generated turnover from consumer expenses employment

1. Participation
Exhibitors The Caribbean Gift and Craft Show was a big success, it attracted 215 companies or organizations in gift and craft from 20 Caribbean countries. Usually around 200 exhibitors from 20 countries in Caribbean are attracted to the show. Off course the different companies came with their share of exhibitors or representatives. Thus the exhibitors at the show met or even surpassed the expectations. Barbados, Curacao, Jamaica were very well represented with 37 companies Jamaica with 26 companies and Haiti with 19 organizations. In the following table you can see the number of companies per country that attended the show in 2007. Table 1. Exhibiting companies per country.
No: of countries 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Country Antigua & Barbuda Bahamas Barbados British Virgin Islands Cuba Curacao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Martinique Saint Lucia St. Kitts and Nevis St. Maarten St. Vincent & The Grenadines Suriname No: of companies 3 1 37 4 1 37 7 6 5 3 8 19 37 1 8 3 2 1 6

20

Trinidad & Tobago Total

26 215

Buyers Usually the show attracts approximately 300 trade buyers from regional and extra-regional countries. There were a total of 245 buyers present at the four days long show. The number of buyers present at show did not entirely meet the expectations. Only 90 of these buyers registered before the show and 155 did at the show. The majority came from Curacao, a total of 127 buyers. International buyers came from the Netherlands (7) and the United States (14). There were no buyers from the United Kingdom. The table underneath gives a clear report of this. Table 2. No of buyers by country
No: of countries 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Buyer Country Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda British Virgin Islands Canada Curacao Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Jamaica Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire) Netherlands Nigeria Panama Saint Lucia St. Kitts & Nevis St. Maarten St. Vincent & the Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago UK

Visitors The show attracted 5.283 visitors. This number is based on the number of tickets sold; it encompasses a broad group, from locals, visitors from overseas that came especially for the show and tourists that just so happen to be on the island during the show. There is no more information on the distribution of this group, given that prior arrangements werent made to analyze this particular group. The number of visitors the Organizing Committee was aiming at target number of visitors of 6.000. Although this exact target wasnt met, it can be argued that public attendance at the show was relatively high compared to the show in the prior destination.

Pre-registered 1 9 1 1 6 1 1 1

Registered at Show

Total 1

6 4 7

15 5 8 6 1

2 3 2

3 4 2 127 4 2 1 3

34 3

93 1 2 1

3 2 8 7

10 7 0

1 0

3 9 8 1 1

3 10 9 0

7 0

26 27 28

U.S. Virgin Islands USA Venezuela

1 5 9 1 90 155

1 14 1 245

Arrivals According to the bid specifications, the benefits to be derived from hosting the CGCS in either 2006 or 2007 would be significant, as it is anticipated that approximately 500-600 visitors from overseas will be visiting the country for the event, including exhibitors from some 30 countries in the wider Caribbean. Traditionally the month of September belongs to the low season, in 2007 during the month of September 2007 though, there was a noticeable growth in arrivals from the Caribbean to Curaao compared to the same month in the year before. Arrivals from St. Vincent grew by 800% and arrivals from the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas grew substantially. The graphs visualize this development. Altogether, the arrivals from the Caribbean grew by 38%. Graph 1. Arrivals from the Caribbean in September 2006 and 2007
1400 1200
1

No: of arrivals

1000 800 600 400 200 0

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ana

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St. Vin ce

Ant ig

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Bah a

Jam

St. Kitt sa

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Graph 2. Percentage growth in arrivals from the Caribbean in September 2007 compared to 2006

Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Island, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic French Guyana, Granada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, French St. Martin, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Other Caribbean, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia,St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago

Oth

and

Tob

ago

900% 800% 700% 600% 500% 400% 300% 200% 100% 0%

Antig

-100%

There was also growth in the arrivals from North America (4,9%) and Europe (20,1%) in the month of September 2007 as opposed to 2006, according to the Navigation system of CTB. The total number of nights stayed by our Caribbean visitors also experienced an increase. The growth in the total nights stayed was 32% in September 2007 compared to 2006. The countries of which the growth in nights stayed was most remarkable are in the sequence of most important to least important, St. Vincent (1600%), Dominica (794%), Barbados (445%), Antigua (435%) and Bahamas (336%). These countries however, are not the mayor stayers as opposed to Suriname, Aruba, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Of the mayor stayer group only Aruba had a negative growth indicator. Graph 3. No: of nights stayed in September 2006 and 2007
8000 7000 6000

Total nights

5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0

Dom inic a Fre n ch G uy an a

bbea n St. K itts a nd N ev is

Bah a mas

J ama ic a

O the r Cari

Virgin

Brit is h

The total number of nights stayed by visitors from North America and Europe also increased in September 2007 compared to 2006. The growth of total nights stayed by North American visitors (8,025%) is predominantly thanks to the increase of nights stayed by our U.S. visitors (12,05%). Visitors from Canada stayed less nights in September 2007 than in 2006. This corresponds to the participation of 14 buyers fron the U.S. and the absence of buyers from Canada to the show. In

U.S.A. and Canada

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St. V inc en t

Ant ig ua

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Islan d

ada

ua Arub a Baha ma s Barb Britis ados h Vir gin Is land Cu ba Do m Do m in ic a in ic a n Re publi Fre n c ch G uy an Fre n a ch S t. Ma rtin Gra n ada Gua d elou p e Guy a na Ha iti J ama ica Mart iniqu Othe e r C ar ibb ea n Puer to Ric St. K o itts a nd N e vis St. L uc ia St. V inc en t Surin Trinid a me ad an d To ba go
2

general one can ascribe the growth in arrivals during this regularly low season in September 2007 to the hosting of the show in Curaao. Hotel Occupancy A number of inns were provided to the visitors (exhibitors and buyers from the Caribbean and abroad to this show), most of them in the direct vicinity of the venue (WTC). We do not have an exact count of the number of rooms booked by the Caribbean Gift & Craft show visitors at all the recommended hotels, but we do have an overview of the development of hotel occupancy from 2002 till 2007 per month. The overview also includes two hotels that werent suggested by the Curaao Organizing Committee, namely Avila and Lions, but the overall picture gives a fair image of hotel occupancy that can serve as an indicator of possible growth in hotel bookings as a result of hosting the show on the Island. In de image underneath a positive development can be detected throughout 2002 up to 2007, as the average occupancy increases. The month of September also shows continuous increases.

2. Sales & Employment

Sales We do not have the exact numbers of the sales the exhibitors made during the show, although records were kept of the Caribbean companies due to custom policy, except from Curaao. What can be derived from these records is that not all the exhibitors managed to sell the products they brought with them at the show. Some did well and others did not. It would have been great to have an idea of how well our local crafters did at the show. Other than sales the exhibitors made at show, are the sales the Trader made ( ANG 55.000,-) and turnover of the sales of soup. On the soup day, the soup commission managed to sell 497 soup bowls which amounted to ANG 2.485,- in sales. Brokers also charged for their services. Swissport handled most of the cargo. We do not posses information on their income from the show. on this subject. What was particularly interesting is the fact that many different organizations contributed free of charge. More over, our youth played an important role in the show. Students from different levels of education contributed to the show. Students from secondary vocational schools were the chefs at the soup day. Others were hosts at the show along with some junior college students in the flexpool, helping our visitors feel at home at the Show and our Island of course. Students from the University of the Netherlands Antilles created the daily Expo News which compiled information on the prior day in a reader friendly way to the exhibitors. In the endeavor of involving schools, the Curaao Organizing Committee received lots of cooperation from public private entities as well. A random interview with 3 local visitors to the show held by one of the members of the news crew for Expo News revealed that the public is not very much aware of what our island can produce in the craft and art field and that events like the Caribbean Gift and Craft Show should be held more often to get them acquainted with our artists in particular and Caribbean art & craft. Moreover most of them came for shear curiosity. Finally the interaction with our neighboring countries is of great importance for further development of our community.

Employment The show attributed to employment of several groupings ranging from taxi and bus/shuttle drivers, Destination Curaao (responsible for logistics at WTC), A-Z models, the Trader (restaurant), Dushi Korsou, Rhyddm (entertainment groups), Massive Production (sound), Editor and Layout designers (newspaper, promotion). These are just a few of the beneficiaries from the show.

3. Social Contribution
Not only did the show contribute to the economy, but it also contributed to the social development of our community. Prior to the show in September, some private and governmental institutions joined to prepare a two weeks long training for our local crafters in order to get them ready for the export market. An instructor from the Cape Craft Design Institute, South Africa, was brought to Curaao to teach our crafters