Make attractions more affordable for locals

A top tourism official is calling on the operators of attractions across the island to make it more affordable for locals to visit their establishments.

The call has come from Chief Product Development Officer at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) Marsha Alleyne.

She was speaking to reporters on Friday, following a tour of the Animal Flower Cave in St Lucy, as part of the Ministry of Tourism’s Barbados Uh Come From marketing campaign which is designed to encourage more locals to visit attractions, restaurants and hotels, and take part in other tourism-related activities, in an effort to support the sector which has been hit hard by COVID-19.

Alleyne, who is instrumental in developing the initiative, said it was important that locals are able to visit the attractions and learn more about what the island has to offer.

“We are a tourism dependent nation and it is really sad that . . . our visitors know Barbados better and more than we Barbadians actually know Barbados. And we want to change that,” she said.

“We also want to demystify the whole notion of a tourist attraction; it is there for every single Barbadian and not just the people who visit our island, and we are the best ambassadors to sell this island.”

However, with some concern about the cost of visiting some of the attractions, Alleyne disclosed that Tourism Ministry officials were in talks with operators to encourage them to offer more affordable prices.

“We are negotiating with every single attraction to ensure that the specials are affordable,” she said. “We want to channel and challenge every single attraction to have a year-long special for locals so that locals can come out and actually be part of the experience that we have . . . in our product offering.”

Meantime, Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins said she would ensure that policies being developed for the sector had input from all stakeholders.

She said her Ministry was in the process of organising a meeting with all attraction owners so they could “assess what the status of all the attractions is, both infrastructural challenges and business challenges”.

“The way in which business is evolving, many of the business models that many of our attractions have been using for quite some time may also be in need of some upgrade. So, we are going to be going into a full consultation with all of the attractions with a view to comprehensively reviewing what is needed, what the state of affairs is, and then of course plotting the way forward in collaboration with all of them,” Cummins explained.

On today’s tour, tourism representatives were accompanied by children from the Good Shepherd Anglican Church Camp and the Fun Music Workshop.

Two workers from the hotel industry were also on the trip to better familiarise themselves with the attraction, which Cummins said would enable them to be in a better position to help “sell what is ours to others”.

Welcoming the marketing and promotion initiative, Member of Parliament for St Lucy Peter Phillips said it was critical that authorities do what they could to help businesses during this difficult period.

“We have to do things differently for our tourism sector, which we still depend on at the end of the day,” he said.

Responding to questions from the media, the former Minister in the Ministry of Transport acknowledged that many of the roadways leading to some of the attractions were in need of repair.

However, he gave the assurance that Government was keen on improving the infrastructure across the island through a comprehensive plan.

“Not just the roads, but the buildings and so on. There are different sites that have architectural value that the Government will overall undertake to improve so that they become part of the attractions of Barbados,” said Phillips.

Owner of the Animal Flower Cave, Manuel Ward said he has been offering specials to attract more people to the location.

He welcomed the marketing of the island’s product offerings by the tourism authorities.

“I hope it stays like that and we have this interaction more. I think it is the way we have to go. We do get our good local business, so on a Saturday and Sunday I can do about 90 people, and anybody at this time is really good,” said Ward. (MM)