Hotel leaders upbeat about tourism’s recovery by winter 2022

Hotel industry leaders remain optimistic that tourism will rebound after the pandemic, with one predicting that Barbados will be one of the Caribbean islands to lead the global recovery that experts say is expected to take four years.

The upbeat assessment comes despite developments in key source markets that are still limiting the level of visitor arrivals and spending here and a snail’s pace revival of the industry from its worst-ever crisis.

Senator Rudy Grant, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association told journalists in a media update Thursday that he anticipates Barbados’ tourism recovery to be faster than four years given the pent-up demand for the destination and its product offerings.

Senator Grant said: “Of course this is a very fluid environment and there is no certainty as to what is happening in our various source markets. Just to say though, from our interaction with our travel partners – tour operators and airlines – Barbados continues to be the number one selling destination in the region.

“Our expectation, therefore, is that we will see a situation where there continues to be good airlift particularly as we approach the winter period. Once we are able to get on that green list coming out of the UK, I think we are going to see some good business. I think Barbados’ recovery is going to be a lot shorter than some other countries. We have a good product offering and Barbados is an aspirational destination.”

In its first Caribbean Quarterly Bulletin for this year, the Inter-American Development Bank said most global tourism reports were predicting a two to four-year period to full recovery to 2019 levels.

But the report’s authors said: “The Caribbean could either lead or lag the global recovery depending upon specific circumstances in the main Caribbean source countries and in the Caribbean destinations themselves.”

The researchers based this on the evolution of the pandemic and the COVID-19 rollout, the economic environment in source countries, the split between business versus leisure tourism and airline capacity, among other factors.

But the recovery of the newly reopened tourism industry remains anaemic.

Hotel occupancy for the month of April was a mere 14.6 per cent, the BHTA reported. Revenue for the month was also low, coming in at around $5.7 million, down from the usual $78 million.

Barbados is on the amber list of the UK’s traffic light system for travel abroad. list, This means that even if they leave the UK fully vaccinated against COVID-19, they must take a COVID-19 test here, then pay for two tests on their return and quarantine for ten days.

Under these circumstances, Senator Grant said he expected the summer period to be “somewhat challenging”.

“So until Barbados gets on the [UK’s] green list, we are anticipating that there will be [a] limited number of visitors coming out of the UK. So it is a very challenging time,” he told journalists.

He said he was hoping the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc’s (BTMI) new Little Island, Big Barbados campaign would help to drive tourism business here in the coming months, adding that airline partners and tour operators are already indicating a growing interest in travel to Barbados for winter 2022.

The BHTA chief executive said not all attractions and other tourism businesses will be open this summer but he expected all of them to be ready by winter.

He said one of the areas, tourism officials would be keeping a close eye on as visitor numbers rise would be ensuring that COVID-19 test results are returned in a timely manner.

Senator Grant said: “I am not worried we will take four years [to recover], but of course I can’t say specifically how many years we will take. My expectation is once we start to see travel resuming again and we are able to get our airlift enhanced.

“I am not very worried with respect to the length of time to recovery.

“What I am concerned with is to ensure that we are able to have our protocols functioning effectively, we are able to ensure the survival of businesses and continue to engage our workers particularly in the winter period. Our expectation is that for winter we are going to see a reasonable amount of business returning.”

BHTA chair Geoffrey Roach said the cruise industry was also expected to get off to a slow start with only about three calls at Bridgetown scheduled for next month.

But he said cruising, too, should scale up by winter to reach about 80 calls, albeit with an average ship capacity of about 60 per cent.

“That can change very easily because as we keep saying the situation is dynamic, so what we are expecting is that in the last quarter of the year, October, November and December is when we will be seeing a lot more cruise activity based on what we are seeing in terms of the bookings right now,” said Roach.

He added that a collaborative market research approach was needed as the market reopens so that “a lot of the decisions we make [are] more scientifically based”.Roach said the BHTA would be engaging the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and the Ministry of Tourism on that research. (MM)