While the words ‘Holiday safety more important than price’ may not bring immediate comfort to our tourism industry and policy planners, it just could be a critical deciding factor in the recovery process, as and when that materializes. AllClear Travel Insurance which boasts on its website that it is the UK’s most trusted travel insurance provider, holding the coveted Trustpilot
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Submitted by BU Contributor While the GoB should be widely complimented for its initial handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the past 5-6 weeks have unearthed a strategy where priority is being placed on feeling good over firm facts, economics over health and spin over substance. It is clear to a blind man on a trotting horse that the Government has
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Posted by Lyall Small to the Covid 19 Update blog in response to commenter Critical Anlayzer and the Blogmaster to concerns about new strains of the virus. I think that the difficulties that Barbados has been experiencing in dealing with the new clusters over the last 3 weeks or so is going to be very important in showing the way
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Will it be about the quantity or the quality, both in terms of numbers and beneficial contribution when cruise ships finally return to Barbados? Traditionally of course, we usually only see one or maybe two cruise ships arrive weekly during the long summer months, but come November under post pandemic conditions the Bridgetown Port is thriving with a multitude of
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Submitted by Petko I wish to preface this by stating in no way am I affiliated with or have any financial interest in the tourism or travel industry, as I know what I write below will have people stating I have only written to push a personal financial agenda. The time for Barbados to open her borders completely is now.
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The blogmaster has sympathy for small open, tourist dependent countries. Developing countries with meagre resources that were struggling to manage poorly performing economies have been struck for SIX with the onset of COVID 19 pandemic. The challenge for governments to implement policies which balance shoring up livelihoods with public health priorities is real. The blogmaster will not enter the toxic
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Submitted by Ironside ‘Trildren’ and Dust Devils If you know a little about the psychology of self-presentation or you did a really great customer service course recently, you would know that the PM’s first and second digital epistles to the country are no more than “emotional leakage”, the kind that comes involuntarily when the individual knows that he or she
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Trust No One. We are being told that since most of us have been vaccinated against viruses as children, we should not be concerned about taking the COVID-19 vaccination. We normally accept a medical professional’s advice without question. But these are not normal times. We live in a time when our historians can dream nightmares, and convince the government
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For decades, this week has traditionally marked the start of the critical winter season where visitor arrivals and occupancy soar and when many of our hotels and tourism enterprises achieve their most lucrative rates, which during normal times, significantly contributes to absorbing operational costs during the longer softer summer season. While the introduction of a Covid-19 vaccine has offered hope
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Submitted by Steven Kaszab Pandemic Fever is upon Us All. Our lives, economic and social existence transforming before our eyes. This covid-19 Moment will continue for a long time. The news that We will be seeing a medical boost in the near future is great and happily welcomed. I believe the Global Community will be dealing with COVID-19 and its
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Submitted by Richard Petko In the past few days Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes and economist Jeremy Stephen provided varying opinions on when the local economy will rebound. Whatever the date, it is crystal clear the primary driver of the economy is tourism and until it returns in force, Barbados will be subject to an unsustainable unemployment rate
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Some smart person is reported to have said never let a crisis go to waste. There can be no disagreement the raging COVID 19 pandemic has created a crisis of gargantuan proportion for countries everywhere. Small island states like Barbados will struggle to sustain a standard of living it has become accustomed. The 64k question facing the tiny island- what
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Submitted by Steven Kaszab When logic, emotions and reality checks hit the mark. IS YOUR MIND LIKE A TORTURE CHAMBER DURING THIS PANDEMIC, ZAPPING YOUR CREATIVITY AND TAKING YOU DOWN? I have been a manufacturer for 30 +years. And in that time have been in many stressful situations.We all have. But since the pandemic hit, I have experienced a whole
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Just over two months ago (10th August), I questioned the wisdom of granting four airlines either new to Barbados or restoring previous services, permission to operate inter-Caribbean routes, presumably to help soak up any loss created by the failure of LIAT (1974) Ltd. What was even more surprising is that all four carriers responded positively to the invitation before the
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The following report was distributed by the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2020 – David, Blogmaster (October 6, 2020) It will be essential to maintain and deepen active macroeconomic policies to achieve recovery and economic and social transformation after the crisis unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, ECLAC indicated in a report entitled Economic Survey of Latin America
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There was a time – and it still is for many – the popular management instruction was that the sole purpose of a business was to create shareholder value. For this reason financial institutions and others for decades have used this single performance indicator to determine the success of the business. In recent years a more enlightened management theory promoted
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The inability of key stakeholders – the Ministry of Education (MOE) and respective teacher’s unions to discuss Covid 19 protocols in a constructive environment in order to facilitate the commencement of the proposed September 21, 2020 term has come as no surprise. The relationship between successive governments, Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) and Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) has been
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This week’s column marks a personal milestone, 520 weekly or ten years submissions amounting to around 260,000 words and entirely dedicated to a single subject, tourism. The objective was never to suggest that there is any one particular ‘holy grail’ solution to the challenges that continually face the industry, either in good times, let alone the unprecedented demanding current period,
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