Action team picked to jumpstart tourism

Tourism officials are consumed with determining strategies to keep Barbados top-of-mind in its major markets with a near $30 million fund, while the country battles the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Minister of Tourism and International Transport Kerrie Symmonds has told a major Canadian travel site Travel Pulse Canada during a Facebook Live chat with host John Kirk, it has been a “tough period we’re going through”.

Between 80 and 90 per cent of hotels and fine dining restaurants have closed their doors including the swanky Sandy Lane Hotel on the West Coast, Sandals Hotel, and the Elegant Group, the island’s largest hotel chain which was recently purchased by Marriott International Inc. for US$ 199 million.

Noting that the island remains under a 24-hour curfew, Symmonds said, “We’ve taken a conscious decision to use this period as a period where we can do a reassessment of our industry, the way we have done business historically and traditionally, and where we can identify substantial improvements and so on. We’ve done a number of things.

“First of all, there’s a look at how we can reposition the Barbados brand and keep it top-of-mind across all the major source markets. One of the things we have done is set aside funds at the Government level, I think $20 to $30 million, and then there will be a blending of financing with the private sector to be able to re-capitalise what we call the Small Hotel Redevelopment Fund. That fund will be to enable a lot of hotels to refresh themselves and use this down period [for renovations and reconstruction].”

Minister of Tourism and International Transport Kerrie Symmonds (left) and Travel Pulse host John Kirk.

Citing the creation of a Tourism Recovery Task Force, the Minister said it will examine ways to recover the sector after the health and economic crisis created by the COVID-19.

Among the chief considerations are plans for recovery of every aspect of Barbados’ tourism sector including attractions, restaurants, hotels, and “other areas of the economy linked into tourism” – the cultural sector, the agricultural sector, the sporting sector.

According to Symmonds, the cruise sector will be getting specific attention.

“Even as I speak to you there are ten or 12 cruise ships anchored off the coast of Barbados because they had nowhere else to go. We facilitated the repatriation of the passengers, but the ships are still out there. It has helped us to develop a warm kinship and a sense of fraternity with that sector.

“We were perhaps their greatest friend. We are looking at the way we can perhaps work with them so that when there’s a recovery period we can be the centrepiece of that recovery. And there are some things we would want to do for the rest of the region, and the Eastern Caribbean. And one of those is to create a summer cruise itinerary, so that instead of the Mediterranean being the only place to be for major cruise activity out of Europe, we would want to think that now we can have a look at the southeast Caribbean and have Barbados as the centrepiece of that itinerary.”

The Tourism Minister also had a word of encouragement for travel agents in the various markets. “We want . . . to formulate big plans and to bounce back, and not just to come back by ourselves but as part of a stronger and more prepared Caribbean region, and a safer Caribbean region.”

He added: “One major one is to have a COVID-free Barbados, and in that regard we’re looking at a pre-molecular test which would be a test that, if we can get it put together, would be done on entry into the island so you know you’re coming onto island where you know there’s no disease. Similarly, we’d like to spearhead an effort to have that in the Eastern Caribbean as a whole.

“We are obviously anxious to re-open ourselves to business, but it has to be done in a way that’s safe for the visiting public and also the local public,” Symmonds said.