The state tourism marketing agency has touted the Government’s year-long initiative to unite Bajans at home and abroad as a potential boost to visitor arrivals.
While arrivals in 2019 grew by about four to five per cent over the last year, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc’s marketing director Robert Chase said he expected the same performance in 2020 because of “We Gatherin’”.
Chase told journalists: “We are confident that it can deliver that based on the 700,000 diaspora across the globe.
“If we manage to convince ten per cent to travel, that would deliver that additional growth in tourism in the next year.”
But as he spoke at a press launch of the We Gatherin’ initiative at River Bay, St Lucy, Chase said while the initiative promises potential growth, officials now have to ensure that there would be adequate airlift available to accommodate the members of the diaspora and regular visitors coming to the island.
He said: “The task that we have at hand is to ensure that we have adequate airlift so that we do not end up crowding out our regular visitors, and rather simply see a substitution or cannibalisation of our regular traveller with diaspora traveller in the summer period.
“Because that can be a time, particularly summer time when the number of seats available and the costs of seats can be a challenge with our partners.”
The BTMI marketing boss also indicated that it was critical to convince the diaspora to book their seats early prior to the travel date, to give local tourism officials the opportunity to convince airlines to add more seats to accommodate Barbadians who want to come home.
He told journalists: “We have been speaking with our partners in our various markets whether it be BA [British Airways], whether it be Virgin Holidays, whether it be American Airlines and we have made them aware of what’s happening in 2020, and they are committed to supporting us in growing the level of arrivals that is required.
“Now, obviously they have to plan their networks and therefore they look at the level of traffic and the level of booking that they are seeing.
“So the more that that booking takes place earlier, the greater there is the opportunity for us to engage them in adding the requisite level of seats to achieve our objective, and then to support us with the level of pricing that we believe is required in order to capitalise on this opportunity.
“Obviously there are other options that we can look at but we would prefer not to go down the route of charters and that sort of thing because that is not the norm in this day and age.”
