Who knows. I take this in the same measure in irresponsibility of government sounding off the use of e-commerce in business when the same government does not have any themselves or pushing for it to be implemented.

The thing is implementation would increase government productively immensely. Imagine not having to stand in line to pay paye , corporate tax or land tax. Imagine being able to open a business in minutes instead of days. or being able to search the land registry for title deed in seconds not days. but i guess young at heart and look for solution to current problems. Like income tax department for 2 years or more they been print receipts that goes over the letter headers for official receipts . why does it take so long to fix simple problems

Indeed david indeed

No media coverage at a Town Hall to discuss developing our #1 sector?

@Hants

Unfortunately the BTA is comprised of people who have been doing the job for donkey years plus the political appointees. We never learn.

@David – It’s not just ignorance by the Minister, their Marketing Director when asked directly by me refuses to comment?

Also, look at Multi-Choice, have no idea for DirecTV, but Jamaica & Bahamas have ads at least say twice a weeknight in popular Programmes like CSI, Leno or Letterman.

St Lucia advertises about twice a month, usually on BET, and they promote their social media in it.

Barbados advertises once a month, usually between 12:Midnight and 6:00 am when rates are lower or the BTA offers a trip during Wheel Of Fortune or Price Is Right at the brisk rate of once every other month?

The Budget allocates $6 million more to BTA for advertising, why not cut the so-called top exec’s wages and plow it into promotions instead? No new funds expended and better spending….

Averil Byer, she got real stroppy when I asked her why the inert pages… “I HAVE NO COMMENT, ASK THE MINISTER!’ So I go to Sealy and he asks me if I check with Byer, sigh!

Thanks Adrian, 4 people is a tad disappointing to say the least.

Page 1 of Barbadostoday. The face of Digicel should be the “face of Barbados tourism (if she is a Bajan).

In a related story:

The lost decade leads to looming US tourist crisis

Comments: 5

International tourism is not just a big business. It’s also a huge export. And that’s why the US is on the brink of a tourism crisis, many observers increasingly agree.

“The United States is losing market share as a tourist destination,” writes Martha C. Wright in Slate.

According to the US Travel Association, the US’s market share of global tourism dropped by almost one third from 2000 to 2009. That means 2.4 million fewer visitors in 2009 than at the beginning of the decade.

Foreign tourists bring in US$120 billion to the US economy. The business makes up eight percent of the US’s overall exports, or one quarter of all exports in the services category. Tourism is one area where the US runs a healthy trade surplus.

One explanation of why the US is discouraging visitors comes from J. W. Marriott Jr. He largely blames increasingly tight airport security.

“We’ve become a risk-averse country,” said the 78-year-old hotel leader at a recent conference on economic growth.

Intrusive bureaucracy also discourages visitors, he said. At the same time, places such as Europe are making it easier for foreign visitors.

“More Chinese visited Paris last year than the US,” said Marriott. He pointed out that each Chinese traveler spends about $7,000 per US visit compared to $1,200 for each domestic traveler.
He called the last ten years “The Lost Decade” because the US saw a loss of $450 billion in exports and 440,000 jobs because of the decline of foreign visitors.

Worldwide, long haul flights are up by one third since 2000, so it’s no problem for foreign visitors to get here. So what is the problem?

Problems, as in plural.

—Part of America’s tourism problem is marketing, Slate says.” We don’t have any at the national level,” the article says. While states and cities do promotions to their specific areas, there aren’t any agencies promoting the entire US as a country.

—Visa requirements. There are three dozen countries on a visa-waiver list but since 9-11, others not on that list go through an intensive process that includes an in-person interview just to visit here for a vacation. In some countries such as Brazil, there are only a handful of offices where personal interviews can take place. That process can take several months just for an interview.

—Perception. For the past decade, there’s been a growing overseas sentiment that the US is increasingly becoming “Fortress America” with travelers complaining not only about growing security but also about a general feeling of not being welcome.

There have been some positive recent moves towards promoting international tourism.

The Travel Promotion Act last year set up the Corporation for Travel Promotion. An initial $10 million was set aside (from fees on travelers coming to the US) to promote travel here. More money is expected from the new agency in the future.

"People have a perception of the US as protectionist, arrogant and inhospitable, and I think we need to change that image," said chairman Stephen J. Cloobeck, who is CEO of Diamond Resorts International. "We’re going to jump-start the marketing of America."

International visitors are specific in their individual needs. So the agency will target specific groups of people from various countries. One example: marketing to the Chinese market might involve the depth of cultural opportunities available here.

Some of the new agency’s money will have to go for the image issue.

"We’ve got to overcome the perception that has built up of Fortress America," said Roger Dow, president and chief executive of the US Travel Association.

By David Wilkening

BREAKIN’ News – BTA’s FB page updated, jumps straight from July 13 to Current! “THE 2010 CRUISE SEASON LAUNCHES The cruise department held a performance spectacle at the Bridgetown Port on November 13th to mark the start of the 2010/2011 cruise season. One this date there were four cruise ship calls with a total of 6855 passengers and 2500 crew members with the Emerald Princess producing…” (see more)

Reports from Barbados today has the jazz festival cancelled, Can anyone confirm ?

Great ‘ad’ for Barbados with 155,000 plus views in just over a year.

This is the power of using FREE social media!

@David,
The robbery took place in 2009. relevance?

The BTA needs to look at the Royal Westmoreland website. The web cam idea is great.
Live web cams at the best “Tourist” locations would be a great idea.

There are sadly SOME myopic people amongst
our tourism and public order policymakers.
They naively think that if you keep reported crime out of the local media, no-one will know about it and the problem will go away.
They do not seem to understand that the past victims of crime, their relatives, international media, repeat visitors and potentially new ones ALL read this blog on a regular basis.
They also visit social media sites like TripAdvisor Barbados Forum, where currently out of the first 20 topics, an alarming 3 are dedicated to recent on island crime.
While some decision makers may consider TripAdvisor a ‘menace’, its difficult to ignore any travel reference website thats attracts a staggering 40 million unique visitors a month.
Likewise with ‘our’ tourism FaceBook page, which was ignored for over five months and has only just been re-activated.
‘We’ allow things to FESTER, just as ‘we’ did with Long Beach and I can see exactly the same thing happening again on the West Coast.
Deal with the problem and be seen to have dealt with it!
I chaired the BHTA Safety and Security Commitee for a brief period. Despite having a RBPF representative on the committee, I still had to rely on reading any local media crime coverage to keep even remotely informed.