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THE CARIBBEAN
CLEANS UP AND LOOKS TO THE FUTURE AFTER A DESTRUCTIVE
HURRICANE SEASON .
contributed by LAURA KOSS-FEDER
The months of August and September 2017 saw Mother Nature unleash a string of fury : Hurricanes Harvey , Irma and Maria battered Texas , Florida and the Caribbean in rapid-fire succession and left many dead , thousands homeless and residents scrambling for water , food and other necessities .
For the hotel industry ' s more than 250,000 guest rooms , Irma and Maria are taking their toll on the Caribbean ’ s winter 2018 high travel season and the robust US $ 56.4 billion in revenues that tourism brings to the region ' s GDP .
While the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association reported as of press time that more than 70 % of the Caribbean was open for business , “ for the most severely impacted destinations , it will take some time for full recovery to occur ,” says Frank Comito , the association ’ s CEO and director general .
“ Tourists are pretty resilient , and we will see tourism dollars bounce back in about 18 months in Puerto Rico , and two to three years for some of the smaller islands ,” says Ann Fastiggi , Greenwich , Connecticut-based RSR Partners , an
12 hotelsmag . com December 2017