Hoteliers in Barbados are being urged to open up their doors because wealthy Britons are more than eager to travel to the Caribbean from as early as October.
This was outlined by Paul Cleary, the owner and chief executive officer of Caribtours, a British tour operator who told participants in a Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) webinar this week he was worried that too many hotels in the region remained closed.
“Airlift is going to be very important. It is a chicken and egg situation. We’ve got airlines that want to come back into the Caribbean but . . . many hotels are remaining closed. An awful lot of hotels are remaining closed through to October and that worries me a little bit.
“I understand why those hotels are delaying their re-opening but I think we are making some mistakes here. I know this is traditionally the low period but other destinations are opening up.
“My clients are falling over themselves to go on aeroplanes to places like Greece. Greece is on their doorsteps and people want to go on holiday. I would urge the hotels to bring forward their opening if they safely can because I think there is more business for the rest of summer and autumn than any of us would have expected. It is not like previous years between July and October,” the British tour operator outlined.
According to Cleary there was “very strong” demand for Caribbean travel in January 2021.
“Our business for October to December is still a little bit soft but we’ve started to see it coming on,” he noted.
Cleary added: “We are starting to see quite a lot of Barbados, quite a lot of Grenada and St Lucia business coming in for Christmas. October is a big departure month out of the UK . . . And we need these hotels to be guest-ready for October for travel out of the UK.”
Responding to a question on whether hotels stood to lose if they were not prepared to accept guests in another two months, Cleary said:
“Be it far from me to tell a hotel how to run its operations. All I know is what I can see – people want to travel. Out of the UK, in the luxury market especially, they want to travel and those resorts and destinations that are open [will benefit].
“We are seeing tentative steps with [British Airways] recommencing flights into Barbados. I want to see as many clients as I can going in there as soon as possible. . . . I have an urgent need to get those hotels open.
“The hotels will do the right thing when they are ready. Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying . . . but I am telling you July, August, September and October are not like any other July, August, September, October that I have experienced. I think we have to get out of that mindset. We could be having a mini-peak season.”
Speaking to the current trends, Cleary said: “Winter bookings look better than they do for the fall.” He explained that this situation was partly driven by rebookings.
“These are people who were travelling last April or May who made the decision to rebook next winter.
“Further out, we still have some of that strength on the books and that is helping to boost what would otherwise be a new booking trend. But we have a lot of work to do to make winter a success.”
