Barbados tourism officials are expressing concerns at the level of tourist arrivals indicating that the high interest showed during the winter season has not been mirrored in the summer, even with the return of the annual Crop Over festival.
“Tourism is our best chance at this moment to secure the future of our island, however, as we emerge from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic this will not be without its challenges,” said the chairperson of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Renee Coppin.
‘’We know that despite strong winter arrivals to the island from December 2021 to April 2022, we’re down 47.1 percent when compared to 2019 levels. We equally know that while many of our members enjoyed good winter performances our stats say that average hotel occupancies for that same period December 2021, to April 2022, we’re down by 10.1 percent,” Coppin told the BHTA’s 70th annual general meeting.
“As we look forward, we are aware that summer will be a challenge given that inbound passenger flights for all markets in the period June to October 2022 are down by 29 percent and this is compared to our last normal year 2019. Inbound seats to the island for that same period are down 37.4 percent.
“We remain positive that even though airlift does not at any point this year return to 2019 levels we will move to a fuller recovery in 2023. We will continue to work with the BTMI to keep them aware of our tactical needs and we ask for all of your support in this process,” Coppin added.
Barbados will be hosting the annual Crop Over for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic with both the Grand Kadooment and Foreday Morning, two of the biggest events of the festival, returning after last being held in 2019.
Coppin told the meeting that the upcoming summer months presented the biggest challenge, even as she maintained that there was a need for Barbados’ summer offerings to visitors to be significantly improved.
“As we look forward as a country, we must continue to ensure that we build out both our orange economy and our sports economy so that we have a viable calendar of events and activities to drive business to the island,” Coppin said.
Meanwhile, Coppin believes the government should continue to place much emphasis on the tourism sector, amid calls for a diversification of the local economy.
She said it would be ill-advised to develop other sectors while putting tourism on the backburner.
Coppin said the results of a recent survey showed that Barbadians believe there were more benefits to garner from tourism than drawbacks even as she acknowledged that Barbadians are in favor of the country reducing its dependence on tourism, as the pandemic had highlighted its vulnerability.
CMC
