New-look tourism in Barbados
Bridgetown.- Barbados must do something to refresh, reinvent and reinvigorate its tourism product, said recently Colin Jordan, president of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association.Jordan said that is the “daunting” message the island’s source markets are sending. He added that although figures indicated the industry might be on the rebound and there were projections for a better performance in 2011, tourism players and the government needed to work on the markets’ recommendations.
According to Jordan Barbados had lost some visitor attractions and stressed the need for collaboration between the private and public sectors to add new ones. Jordan joined the chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA), Ralph Taylor, and president David Rice yesterday at Almond Beach Club and Spa, Vauxhall, St James, to continue their “conversations with the public” started 18 months ago.
Taylor reported visitor arrivals rose to 53 000 in January. Though this was a modest increase over last year, it was an indication of an “arrest” of the decline of 2009. (Source: Daily Nation)