BHTA upbeat about upcoming winter season

The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) says the 2023/2024 winter season is shaping up to be a good one.

Even though airlift capacity has not returned to 2019 levels, the association on Tuesday predicted that the numbers for next month and April 2024 would be favourable.

Speaking to the media during the BHTA’s quarterly briefing at the association’s headquarters, chairman Renée Coppin said, “December 2023 and April 2024 are the sole months at present where capacity is above that of 2019”.

“Overall, for 2023, we will end the year down 176 830 seats on 2019. So, there is work to be done, but we are glad to be reporting that we are trending in the right direction,” she added.

“From our key UK market, winter 2023/2024 will see Barbados reach record levels of airlift. November 2023 through to April 2024 shows significant increases in UK flights and seat capacity, with March 2024 poised to be the best winter month from this market. These increases are driven by four key factors: Norse Atlantic’s five-times-a-week service from London Gatwick; Virgin Atlantic going double daily from London Heathrow for January to March 2024; a record amount of charter flights from London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, and so on; and British Airways increasing Heathrow flights for April 2024,” the BHTA chairman said.

She added that airlift from the United States (US) post-COVID-19 continued to increase gradually, with March, April and May 2024 being “the three strongest months for US airlift recovery where the seat capacity surpasses that of 2019”.

Coppin pointed out that the Canadian market was a “little sluggish” but there was some projected improvement for this winter season.

She added that the association was also optimistic about cruise travel, noting that the 2023/2024 cruise season started in earnest last Friday with the arrival of the P&O Britannia and Carnival Venezia out of Florida.

“Barbados is seeing ships arriving at 100 per cent capacity. This has the expected knock-on effect, as on busy days at the Bridgetown Port the taxi operators and retail sector all benefit. Areas such as Carlisle Bay Beach are abuzz, with all of the operators and establishments recording strong sales . . . . The homeporting side of the business is driving record charter arrivals. This coming Thursday alone, we will have 11 charter flights – seven from the UK and four from Germany for the Marella ship and the Mein Schiff ship, respectively. Additionally, in the luxury end, we had the first homeport for the ultra-luxury Ritz Carlton ship last Sunday. Moreover, there have been a number of transit ships visiting the island.

“Critically, especially as we want to see the benefits and multiplier effects of our industry, the cruise tourism transport sector has seen a number of new entrants as well as some upgrades to the existing ZM and bus fleet,” Coppin reported.

This positive news, the BHTA chairman said, indicated that the tourism sector continued to play a critical role in building out Barbados’ economy, adding that the tourism statistics outlined in the latest quarterly update from the Governor of the Central Bank underscored the importance of the industry.

Quoting the report, she said: “Tourists’ expenditure increased by $333.2 million when compared to the same period last year. Tourism is the major driver of our Barbados economy.”

During the briefing, Coppin also gave a report of statistics for the recently concluded summer period, which she said showed an improvement in arrivals compared to 2022.

“For the period January to September 2023, there was an overall improvement over last year of 18.6 per cent. While we are not yet back to 2019 levels, 2023 arrivals to September are currently at 86.7 per cent of that last banner year. This again compares favourably to where we were last year, which for the same period was only at 73 per cent of 2019 levels,” Coppin said.

However, as it relates to occupancies, she said that for the period July to September, there was marginal improvement of 1.3 per cent over the same period last year. She noted that this slight projection of growth was due to a full return of the Crop Over Festival, which led to a stronger August performance. Nonetheless, the average occupancies were 52.5 per cent for July, 56.1 per cent for August, and 48.3 per cent for September.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb