Highlighting global Bajans

A National WeGatherin’2020 Competition has been designed to provide Government with contact information of the diaspora across the world.

This afternoon, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, launched the Global Stories initiative and Barbados Family and Friends (BFF) Club, at BTMI’s One Place, Warrens, St Michael office.

The purpose of the WeGatherin’2020 Global Stories project is to capture the achievements of Barbadians living abroad and to showcase them to Barbados and the rest of the world.

Global Stories will collate all of the monumental personal achievements by Barbadians that stand as testament to Barbadian intelligence, perseverance, resourcefulness and excellence.

Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Sandra Husbands reminded that the 2020 vision goes beyond next year since Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley’s objective is to build out a Diasporic Economy.

“Then, we want to be able to identify those people in our diaspora who have wonderful stories to share. If we are going to convince the world that Barbados is the place to do business, Barbados is the place to trade, Barbados is the place in which you may want to live, then you have to demonstrate the wonderful quality of the people with whom they will do business and the people with whom they will live.

Chief Executive Officer of the BTMI Billy Griffith (centre) making a point to Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Sandra Husbands (right) and Director of Marketing BTMI Robert Chase.

“Therefore, if we are able to capture those stories and we are able to showcase them, we are going to persuade those people that Barbados is the place in which they can do business. And so we are able to use that to do advanced marketing,” Minister Husbands said.

Meanwhile, the BFF, which has been around for the past ten years and has built a strong network of Barbadian Diaspora from around the globe. The BFF Club and the VisitBarbados brand will utilise their brand reach to significantly amplify the efforts of the Global Stories initiative and the WeGatherin’2020.

The BFF is a Travel Reward programme, which was developed to provide a more structured approach to the activity, by providing the tools to support the efforts.

Additionally, in an effort to promote Barbados, BTMI has relaunched the BFF website as a new and improved system to make it easier for users to earn rewards they deserve.