BHTA records major increase in staycations

Officials of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) are reporting a tremendous take up of staycation offers by Barbadians, with some properties reporting up to 85 per cent of room nights for that programme for some months Chief Executive Officer of the BHTA Senator Rudy Grant said staycations – a period in which families and individuals partake in leisure activities or stay at accommodations at home instead of travelling abroad – have been playing a critical role in the industry especially over the past year when international travel plummeted.

The staycation programme, which is especially promoted for the July to October period annually, started in Barbados more than a decade ago.

“The staycations have been playing a very important role. The hotels participating in staycation have been mainly from the B-Class and the A-Class, and the participation in terms of percentage of room nights in any given month ranges between 25 per cent and 85 per cent for properties,” Grant reported during a recent media conference.

“So staycations continue to be important. The BHTA participated recently in a staycation online campaign and we have seen good results coming out of that campaign. Our members have reported that they are seeing continued business coming out of staycation . . .

Staycations continue to be very important in facilitating business,” he said. Thanking residents for taking advantage of the staycation offers each year, Grant urged them to continue to explore what was on offer locally.

This, as he indicated that more hotel properties have since signed on to the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme following changes at the end of May. BEST is designed to help tourism entities reengage their staff and carry out various sustainable upgrade to their facilities.

Senator Grant was unable to say exactly how many tourism enterprises were now in the BEST programme, but pointed out that further to the 43 approved applications in the first quarter of this year, more entities have been approved since the changes to the programme.

“I can say that the majority of BHTA member hotels are open and operating. We have about 95 per cent of our hotels presently in operation and as it relates to the direct tourism services with respect to restaurants, we have around 89 per cent of restaurants that are open, and for attractions, it is just around 50 per cent.

Many of the businesses have reengaged their staff,” reported Grant. BHTA chairman Geoffrey Roach said he was pleased with the development of the staycation programme over the years, pointing out that while it started with only hotels, it had grown to include various packages which consisted of attractions and excursions.

“That is a great thing for us as a country because what it does is that those properties that have seen pretty good statycation numbers come through their doors have been able to keep more of their staff to be employed. So we have to also view if from the perspective that as a local taking vacation at home we are actually helping to support local employment and the local economy,” said Roach.

During the wide-ranging press conference, the BHTA chairman said he believed tourism will remain the main contributor to the Barbados economy for some time to come even as economic diversification was being considered. And he cautioned that all must be done to protect the tourism industry while containing and stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

“At the end of the day we are still, and will be for a long time to come, a tourism dependent destination. We hear talk about diversification of the Barbadian economy, and that is great.

“We can diversify, and by diversifying we are not talking about getting rid of but complementing,” said Roach.

“But given where we are today, any meaningful diversification is going to take a while to have an impact on Barbados’ economy. So for now and for the foreseeable future it will be tourism, so we have to ensure that whatever we do we don’t compromise the possibility for this industry to recover as quickly as possible,” he cautioned.

The tourism officials said they continued to monitor the effect that the minimum wage was likely to have on a handful of BHTA members in the B-Class hotels and apartments who have had to increase salaries. However, they indicated that prior to the April 1, 2021 national minimum wage commencement date, most members were already paying the $8.50 per hour or above.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb