Alan Greenspan Says Caribbean Must Be Patient

June 23, 2008 By: Joe Pike

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The Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit's keynote speaker, Dr. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1987-2006, told delegates this morning not to expect a quick tourism boom in the Caribbean during a struggling U.S economy. Rather, be patient and treat investments in the region as a long-term process, he says. Greenspan says the Caribbean will not see a dramatic spike in investment in the next two to three years but instead needs to prove it can produce a return for the next 10-15 years before the money “flows there.”

“Don’t pound on doors and say ‘you have to come to the Caribbean for vacations,’” he says. “The problem there is people will slam their doors. You have to show them data, results and people will come.”