Symmonds: Tourism will ‘bounce back by yearend’

Amid dire predictions of millions of dollars in losses for tourism-dependent small island economies globally, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds on Thursday expressed confidence that by yearend Barbados’ tourism industry will be back on track and stronger than before.

The Minister was at the time addressing over 80 media representatives from Barbados’ top regional and international source markets including the United Kingdom, Europe, USA, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America, who tuned in to a webinar held by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) to hear first-hand about Barbados’ next steps in tourism.

Symmonds stated that prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the 2020 winter tourist season had got off to a good start.

He said: “Barbados was trending in the right direction with record levels of arrivals from both the U.K. and the U.S.A last year. At this time of the year, we would be doing on average 55 movements of aircraft every single day; that has all dried up. In the long-stay tourism sector, the hotels are largely all closed, ground transportation has come to a halt; companies related to the tourism sector have all been brought to a standstill. Within the last three weeks, Barbados unemployment has risen by 25 per cent”.

On average, the tourism sector accounts for almost 30 per cent of the GDP of the world’s small island developing states, generating approximately $60 billion (US$30 billion) per year.

The decline in international tourist arrivals for 2020 has been conservatively predicted at between 20 and 30 per cent, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

But Symmonds pointed to measures Barbados has taken thus far to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and its plans to shore up the tourism industry in its aftermath.

“We are spending money now on areas which help to drive employment so as to help us offset the fall-out in the tourism sector. We have had to shift funding into the healthcare sector; for example, we have dedicated $20 million to an isolation and quarantine facility, and $10 million has been allocated to essential medical supplies and equipment.

“In terms of the tourism sector, the Government has put $20 million towards a Small Hotel Investment Fund, which is blended with the private financial sector, to ensure the smaller hotels especially have the opportunity to perform infrastructural refurbishments during this downtime to improve on their competitive appeal.

“In addition, a Tourism Task Force, comprising Government and private sector members, has been established to examine all elements of the industry, including marketing, product, health and safety, cruise, and aviation. Its mandate is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on Barbados tourism and provide recommendations for the recovery, restoration and revitalisation of this critical sector. The Tourism Task Force will also be working to re-train and re-tool tourism workers as part of the island’s recovery plan, commencing May 1,” he said.

Symmonds also addressed the cruise sector, referring to the fact that Barbados was the only Eastern Caribbean country that offered to homeport, having accommodated several cruise liners that were not allowed to dock at other ports in the region.

He said: “When other countries were in some instances refusing to allow cruise ships onto their shores, Barbados took a conscious and deliberate decision that we would not do that and that we would treat the cruise sector as partners should treat each other.”

The Tourism Minister said he expected once overseas markets reopened, Barbados would start to see some business coming its way.

“Beyond summer I think is the reality of a more robust recovery. Obviously, a lot of this is subject to what happens in some of our major source markets. We are very optimistic, but we prepare for the worst. It may be more of a reality to think in terms of winter as opposed to summer. Barbados’ travel partners have advised that there is still a desire and hope for future travel among consumers and current bookings have moved to slightly later in the year, and into 2021,” Symmonds said.

He also stressed that this was a golden opportunity to improve infrastructure within the sector, focus on training and tooling staff, and build out standards and operating procedures within the industry. “We want to come back bigger and better than we were before and it means using the downtime very productively. In Barbados, we have done this business well, but we can do it better, and we will.”

But Symmonds’ estimate of an eight-month revival timeline runs counter to experts’ predictions of a tourism destination’s average recovery time from pandemics.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the COVID-19 crisis is also expected to have a longer-lasting effect on global tourism than on other economic sectors. In previous pandemics, the average recovery time for visitors to a destination was about 19 months.