Minister welcomes news of copping Destination Award

Barbados has won the Seatrade Cruise’s Destination of the Year award, and Minister of Tourism Lisa Cummins has welcomed the news.

The island beat out a sister Caribbean state as well a European country. The two other finalists were Cruise Copenhagen and St Kitts and Nevis.

Barbados is also the only Caribbean country to win an award in the ten categories. According to Seatrade, Barbados’ overwhelming hospitality to cruise liners during the trying COVID-19 period was one of the main reasons for the island coping the award.

Minister Cummins told Barbados TODAY that the positive news was due to hard work.

“It is something that we are absolutely elated about. Barbados has worked really hard, certainly, the Barbados port has done a phenomenal job of maintaining the cruise sector over this period. We saw that at the end of the cruise season or close to the end of the cruise season earlier this year the Barbados port had already exceeded expectations in terms of the passenger arrivals,” she said.

Minister Cummins added: “We were somewhere in the vicinity of approximately 850 cruise passengers and then subsequently we had COVID strike. Subsequently, we moved from projections on passenger arrivals to becoming a humanitarian port for all of our homeporting vessels.”

The minister spoke specifically about the COVID-19 lockdown period when the port offered humanitarian aid to many vessels.

“I think all of Barbados would have seen ships berthed off our coast for an extended period of time. That is something that I think all of us as Barbadians under the leadership of our Prime Minister are all incredibly proud of.

We didn’t expect to be recognised or rewarded for it but it certainly does feel good to see that recognition coming in from Seatrade today for being the Destination of the Year,” Cummins said.

The announcement was made during the annual Seatrade Cruise Awards which took on a virtual format this year.

The host said: “Our first award the Destination of the Year sponsored by Oracle Hospitality, this award goes to a region, tourism body or association which has made significant strides in promoting cruise tourism in the last 12 months.”

Area VP, Global Cruise Sales, Oracle Hospitality, Ingo Sorensen of Oracle made the announcement. He said: “I am delighted to start with the Destination of the Year, the winner is Barbados, congratulation.”

Seatrade Cruise Group Director Mary Bond congratulated all the winners.

Seatrade Cruise Awards forms part of the series of global Seatrade events, websites, and publications that cover every aspect of the cruise and maritime industries, bringing together key people to encourage innovation and to produce powerful learning, networking, and promotional platforms.

The script and explanation for Barbados winning the award read as follows: “Barbados, known as the gem of the Caribbean Sea, has earned this nickname not only because of its beautiful beaches and diverse experiences, but also because of the warmth, kindness, and hospitable nature of its people. However, Barbados’ popularity has been renewed within the cruise industry during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The statement continued: “With hundreds of ships at sea following CLIA’s temporary shutdown on cruising, and with rejection from other ports, this little gem in the Caribbean Sea remained a place where homeporting cruise lines like AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, and more, could call home and find safe haven, warmth, and hospitality during the biggest crisis this industry has ever seen. (IMC)