Barbados rated #1 in the world for visitor satisfaction

The Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) says the country’s tourism is once again in winner’s row, beating out destinations such as second-place Seychelles and third-place Bermuda to land the number one spot on the 2017 Destination Satisfaction Index (DSI).

On Saturday BTMI said throughout the year, over 70,000 travelers were interviewed around the world, giving their feedback on 20 categories including beaches, accommodation, cuisine and shopping.

Highest world score

BTMI said Barbados had the highest overall World score, 8.8/10, of the 144 countries included. The destination also ranked highest in the Accommodation category, and highest in the Americas region, ahead of Bermuda and the Bahamas.

The awards were presented to the Barbados delegation, led by Donna Cadogan, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, during a ceremony at ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show held in Germany’s capital city, BTMI said.

According to William “Billy” Griffith, BTMI’s chief executive officer, the island plans to leverage the accolade in the destination’s marketing communications over the next year. “For us, it’s going to be very advantageous because, with our marketing and our public relations, we’re going to be saying, ‘we’re best in the world,’ at least for the next 12 months,” he said. “And I think it helps us in our quest to move forward in terms of pressing for success for Barbados tourism.”

Barbados challenged

The online survey was administered in 24 source markets, with the 70,000 interviews resulted in 1.4 million responses direct from travelers which informed the scores in each category, BTMI said.

“The feedback was that people, especially when it comes to Barbados, were extremely happy with the trip provided,” said Marc Leimann, Managing Director of Norstat Germany. “Barbados, basically, really challenged and won against the world in total.”

Griffith also congratulated the accommodation sector and lauded their contribution to the destination’s high overall score.

He said the DSI Accommodation award further supports Barbados’ outstanding performance in the highly-recognized TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards, according to BTMI.