Hospitality sector financiers funding tourism projects in Barbados and other Caribbean countries remain concerned about the lack of insurance coverage and challenges they face when conducting business in the region.
That, however, has not caused them to lose their strong appetite for funding hospitality investment in this part of the world, the Caribbean Hospitality Financing Survey 2025 found.
Now in its 20th year, the survey is produced by a firm of chartered accountants and business advisers with operations here and in the Caribbean.
The findings were detailed by Gary Brough, managing director for Baker Tilly in Turks and Caicos Islands, and Eve Mullin, advisory manager for the Caribbean in a 37-page report released on April 30.
They said that survey respondents were asked to identify countries in the Caribbean which they feel most bullish about in terms of their willingness to fund projects. In the end, 12 countries were put forward, five of which were nominated by both banks and non-banks.
Unlike last year, Barbados was not one of the countries put forward by banks and non-banks, but was among those favoured by non-banks.
The five countries favoured by both banks and non-banks are the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Turks and Caicos.
In addition to Barbados, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Puerto Rico, and St Kitts and Nevis are favoured by the non-banks, while Aruba, and Trinidad and Tobago were favoured by banks alone.
“Most banks consider their pipeline to be stronger than last year and, over the last 12 months, they have seen increased transaction activity and an improvement in the performance of their tourism clients,” Brough and Mullin reported.
“The appetite to finance Caribbean tourism projects remains strong and financing terms have seen no material change.”
However, the research news was not all positive, as “the ability to acquire adequate insurance coverage at a reasonable price, if at all, continues to be a problem”.
“Whilst the feedback from respondents on how difficult it is to conduct business in the Caribbean has improved somewhat
from last year, there is still more work to be done, particularly in the areas of innovation, bureaucracy and the role of government.”
The officials elaborated on the insurance issue by stating that “this year, all banks continue to confirm that insurance remains a challenge, 14 per cent now state it is a ‘really big issue’, while the remaining 86 per cent say it was an important factor in their lending decision – but only one of many”.
“Eighty five per cent of non-banks also said that ensuring a target project had access to adequate insurance was a challenge when investing. Fifty-four per cent stated it is a really big issue,” the report says.
“When asked how they are dealing with insurance, pricing and capacity challenges from a lending perspective, 42 per cent of banks indicated that they have turned away potential business because of this issue.
“Another 29 per cent of banks stated that they have had to compromise their usual requirements regarding insurance. The remaining 29 per cent of banks stated that they have experienced no problem with insurance, pricing and capacity challenges – describing it as ‘business as usual’,” it added.
Baker Tilly said they “will continue to monitor it closely whilst keeping our fingers firmly crossed for a particularly quiet hurricane season”.
Responses for the survey were collected between January 30 and March 13 and as Brough and Mullin pointed out this was before the United States’ announcements about higher tariffs.
Baker Tilly, therefore, issued what it called “a cautionary note” acknowledging that “it was likely that events occurring between the closing of our survey and issuing our publication would have impacted some of the results of our survey”, including in relation to perspectives on inflation. (SC)
The post Tourism project financiers still keen appeared first on nationnews.com.
