@ruth

Before responding to you comment it would useful if you provide examples of what you are saying. By generalizing it does nothing for the discussion.

@ac

Here is an illustration to show where we are going with the argument.

Country A has a tourism board which is comprised of a couple members who like to give ‘trouble’ because they are always challenging the leadership by advocating ‘ideas’.

Country B has a tourism board which is comprised of all members, most who are known party hacks anyway, they are always travelling together and seen at the clubs laughing and having drinks.

Country A finds ways to increase its business by building the brand and increasing business, country B is there or there about.

Which approach would you prefer?

Frankly would back the board where ideas are allowed to contend, to hell with toeing the line. It is not a cricket team!

Seems government PR machinery has gone to work ahead of the talk show this morning

Visitor arrivals on the rise

 

By Tim Slinger | Sun, March 27, 2011 – 12:04 AM

MORE AND MORE tourists are coming back to Barbados.

For the period ending at mid-March, visitor arrivals increased by an overall 9.2 per cent when compared with the corresponding period last year.

The turnround in tourism performance has been described as “excellent and pleasantly surprising” by David Rice, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA).

“It’s an absolute change since we have brought about 11 400 more visitors to Barbados than we did in 2010 and the individual performances show the United States is up by 11.7 per cent and the United Kingdom by 16.2 per cent,” he told the SUNDAY SUN.

The BTA chief said the results for the year also showed that arrivals had increased by 1.7 per cent over the same period in 2008 which was regarded as a bumper year, following declining numbers in 2009 and 2010.

While noting that Britain had become one of Barbados’ declining markets, Rice said he was pleased with the bounce-back.

“We were on the decline, so we turned around, certainly in the first quarter of the year, and we would like to believe if we continue with the things we’re doing and more, we will have that performance as a positive performance for 2011.

“It would be one of the first times we would be able to turn it around, certainly in two years out of the UK, and that’s important,” he added.

Rice was also excited about the increase from the United States market which he partly attributed to the introduction of the Dallas three-days-a-week flight which started last December 16.

“As a matter of fact, the [plane] loads have exceeded our projections, so we are very pleased because that opens up the western corridor of the US in terms of bringing not only that market, but a different type of visitor as well,” he said.

The BTA boss also credited a high-powered marketing drive fuelled by a Ministry of Finance $6 million injection as one of the major reasons for the success so far.

“We hired a new marketing agency in December 2010 and we believe that the initiative with television campaigns, which we haven’t done in a long time, and the fact that we have become more visible in the market, which includes [advertisements] in taxi cabs, ads on the ground, more visibility within the magazines and newspapers, has been making it more compelling to visit Barbados.

“We believe that has had an effect,” he said.

Rice also spoke about cruise ship arrivals against the background that Barbados had lost some cruise lines which he said was not “entirely unexpected”.

Noting that the Barbados Port Authority was the front player in this segment, he said: “Our responsibility in the BTA is to make sure that we continue to strategise and to have strategic initiatives in place that would encourage these cruise lines to continue to focus on Barbados as a port of call. If we can continue to do that we certainly believe that our performance will improve over the year.”

He said projections for this year’s tourist arrivals included 200 000 from Britain; 140 000 to 150 000 from the US; 90 000 from CARICOM and 75 000 out of Canada.

@ac
Pray tell what would make Loveridge this brilliant Minister of Tourism?

@ enuff
More knowledge than you have in a speck of your finger nail. Pray tell me what do you Know about the tourism industry? the floor is your now you can mop it up

As long as there is a season called “winter” Barbados Tourism will exist and possibly thrive..

@ ac
I am an idiot, and as such can profess no knowledge of the tourism industry; and stating that Mr. Loveridge has “more knowledge than [I] have in a speck of [my] finger nail” does not say much to justify his suitability. One wonders why his ‘knowledge’ was not treasured on the BTA board by government .

Sorry miss the interview . However i will download it before i can make a response

@enuff,
At least you are honest in stating that you are ignorant when it comes to the Tourism issue . Then i must further ask . How is it that you are so quick to dismissed any of Mr loveridge opinions on such matters. The fact that his knowledge was as you stated “not treasured “on the BTA does not mean that his ideas are worthless. Their are people who are very jealous and vindictive in governments and want all the accolades for themselves. However the public does count Loveridge opinion in a positive light.

to david- be a liitle more specific. examples relating to what aspect of my comment.

Again I must reiterate that reading and comprehension are mutually exclusive. I asked a simple question: Pray tell what would make Loveridge this brilliant Minister of Tourism? After 3 posts you still have not answered my question.

to ac- well venture into trhe hospitality industry and listen to his advice and not the persons who run the board and see if you would ever get off the ground. ask mr loveridge how he managed to get into the hospitality business in barbados. i tired of these armchair critics who play they know everthing and cry wolf because their advice is not accepted.

@R- arnette

Well if and when i venture into the house of vultures in the hospitality industry.hopefully “the know it alls would be long gone and replaced with people of sound mind and judgement . the kin d who are reasonable and able to listen and appreciate the views and opinion of others. Unlike Loveridge i wouldn’t waste my time wishing them a good “half Day” as they are self made dictators only seeking to accomplish goodwill towards themselves and all others be damned. That is why others in the hotel industry are less vocal and won’t be bothered with their bull sh…t. Those type of board members have a boiler room mentality that only speaks to their kind of thinking. Pray tell me why would any one want to be bother with tose type of people.

Just for the record I have absolutely NO political aspirations at all. In fact the more I see of politics here, the more I see it as a destructive element to the success of our tourism industry.
In the worst economic crisis for eighty years, its really difficult to fathom some of the clearly political appointments.
Surely those with the Nation’s interest at heart would want to have the very best people in place with proven ability and
new ideas?
If you had a role model product that been successful for years, won numerous awards, paid all its taxes and contributions including $70,000 in corporation tax this year,
had never claimed subsidies or TIRF monies, who had generated millions of Dollars of positive publicity for the destination, wouldn’t you as a Minister of Tourism or CEO of the national marketing organisation at least want to see how it works?

What I listened to was a dialogue between Colin’s 5-10-15 year White Paper academic analysis of a dead dog, and Austin’s extraordinary, yet freebie, puff piece on his new Speightstown operation.
Where was the dynamic new direction gonna come from.
These two professional talkers?

You’re banging your head against a brick wall, Adrian.
Enjoy your Peace and Quiet away from the status quo determined to ruin what little we have left of an individual tourist experience.

They know not what they do.

Denis Johnson, you sold out too?

to adrian- was that the same model you were criticising for the last 14 years? i have no doubt that you have no political ambitions and perhaps mean well but sometimes well meaning inyentions can be construed the wreong way in this highly charged political environment and requires skill and tact to be not so construed. look, us human beings are quite fickle and very few of us like to be told we are doing things the wrong way so sometimes a little sensitivity and or balancing act need to be brought into the equation if we want our points to be considered and accepted. publicised battles with those in charge will get us nowhere.

@enuff
REf CommentMar 27 752pm
Next time you need to see a medical doctor .Go to a butcher. I think that would do you just fine.

Adrian is a practitioner in the tourist industry. He is beating his head against a concrete block.

I listened to the broadcast and I cannot figure out what the owner of the restaurant in Speighstown was ranting about. I was there last month. I walked the boardwalk with a Trini friend who spent a week with me. We ate lunch at Fisherman’s Pub. The entire place was clean. All the streets were, the bus stand (we use the buses), the fish market, the park (L’esplanade it was called), the parking lots, etc. My friend admired all the old buildings on the main street and could not get over how clean the town was. In fact, she was enchanted with the cleanliness of the entire island especially the beaches.

One thing Bajans seems to forget is that tourists also create garbage. Do we watch to see if they discard it in the proper receptacles? Why do we always blame the locals?

If anyone want to see filthy beaches, just go to Jamaica. There you have public and private beaches. If you can afford the $300 Jamaican, please pay to go to a private beach.