During the last 31 years whilst residing on Barbados and an overall total of 50 years since actively promoting the destination, I have witnessed many Ministers of Tourism come and go. Many, far more informed persons, will judge their individual contribution to the overall betterment of the industry and any lasting legacy they personally have left. I sincerely wish the
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Like I would imagine, along with thousands of other small businesses we have spent the last four months trying to find creative ways of meeting our financial obligations, without any source of earned income. Where possible we have deferred actual payments to essential services by using credit cards, but there eventually remains a day of reckoning Our bank has ceased
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While a handful of hotels on Barbados have been very proactive in reaching out to locals and residents for Staycation options at attractive rates, despite some recent discussion, there appears no national initiative driving this important tactic to help the path of tourism recovery. Perhaps equally discouraging is that our banks and financial institutions seem to be unaware of the
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We are already half way through what will result in many cases, both locally and around the world as one, if not the most difficult years in living memory. Frankly I have been disappointed that we have not witnessed more creative thinking and action among the wealth of tourism professionals, who reside and derive their main income from the sector
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With cruises slated to return to the Caribbean from November, after what must be perceived as one of the biggest public relations catastrophes in the history of tourism, is there any way that we, here on Barbados or throughout the region, can gain a far more equitable share of the past profits and revenues this sector has generated in years
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As the covid-19 outbreak begins to subside and countries start to reopen, the big questions for hoteliers on island destinations are: How will my clients get to the destination? Which airlines will survive and continue to fly and under what conditions? News reports state that clients in major countries no longer trust travel agents/tour operators to book their holidays
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As more and more tourism businesses indicate they are re-opening, hopefully over the next few weeks, our policymakers and planners will instigate a single source reference website or other social media platform to combat the mass confusion and speculation as to when our industry is ready and able to host locals and overseas visitors. Meanwhile, potential arrivals are left to
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If there has ever been a time when tourism partners sharing the same sub-sector have needed to work together in the national recovery interest, it is now! A couple of weeks ago I suggested to our national marketing agency that a short video be produced from the existing library of incredible images highlighting our amazing choice of restaurants and dining
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It would appear that our citizens and residents will first have the option of travelling within the Caribbean, as and when Coronavirus restrictions are lifted. As we are now in the traditional prolonged softer summer season, it also appears to be more logical that our tourism planners and policymakers will focus, at least part of their efforts on promoting this
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All early indications are that at least one positive thing will come out of a post COVID 19 crisis for our tourism industry. So many regular visitors have been confronted, frustrated and generally challenged by the battle to secure refunds from airlines, online travel companies and tour operators, that I believe will result in a massive trend to book directly
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One of the greatest challenges for the entire tourism industry post Coronavirus, in my humble opinion, will be the subject of credibility in the eyes of the consumer or traveller. Almost every day, often conflicting announcements, regarding the status of when ‘we’ are able to fly and from where, seem to hit the headlines. Virgin Atlantic has stated that Barbados
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We all know the story of Sam Lord. The world’s second oldest known con artist. The first one was William Chaloner (1650 – 1699): A serial counterfeiter and confidence trickster proven guilty by Sir Isaac Newton. Below is a shortened version of his story. Samuel Hall Lord, also called “Sam Lord” (1778 – 5 November 1844) was one of the
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Will the traditional model of largely being a tour operator dependent tourism destination dramatically change – as we know it – after the end of the Coronavirus crisis? What prompted these thoughts were the widespread reporting of the huge amounts of monies still owed to our hotel and lodging sector, despite the guests having already been hosted and returned to
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Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Group The fears of many progressives that Caribbean leaders will not embrace a new economic path post COVID -19, are slowly surfacing. While we support the current efforts in the fight against COVID-19, we must admit that as the region returns to state of normalcy or what is being branded the “new norm”, there
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While the controversy continues to mount over the growing problem of outstanding refunds to travellers that have paid monies over to airlines and tour operators who have subsequently had their flights and/or holidays cancelled, one particular point seems to have been missed by the media and many others. Let us take flights to Barbados as an example. Even the lowest
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While some may view it as premature to speculate, given our dependency on tourism, without any other sector on the horizon to replace it, partially or totally, it is perhaps not quite so silly. Many airlines have taken this ‘opportunity’ of the current crisis to downsize their fleets, especially with the larger oil derivative guzzling planes like the four engine
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The current Coronavirus crisis has given ‘us’ a multitude of opportunities, if we choose to seize the moment and use this time to learn and improve conditions for growing our economy, when circumstances return to any form of normality. As I have mentioned before, especially for the smaller investor on Barbados, this process is close to a nightmare and we
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Submitted by Stanton Carter, Brand Caribbean Inc I usually enjoy reading Adrian Loveridge’s column but respectfully did not see any substantive suggestions for a new game to support the Tourism industry in the March 23, 2020 posting. To cut to the chase, the reference to and comments about the September 11th, 2001 disaster, the airlift dependency, the suspended cruise ship
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