Europeans to plant trees, restore coral in Barbados

Visitors from Europe will soon have an opportunity to assist Barbados in its environmental sustainability efforts.

Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) Director for the EU, Anita Nightingale said a sustainability programme would be launched next year that would see visitors being able to plant a tree or help to restore coral.

Making the disclosure recently, she said the hope was that these programmes would help make the trip of visitors “just a little more meaningful”.

She said the hope was to have the tree planting and coral restoration programmes officially introduced in January 2021.

“We are working with Lufthansa’s partners, Compensaid and Myclimate, to find ways in which we can encourage visitors to plant a tree when they land in Barbados,” Nightingale said.
“It took us 10 hours from Frankfurt to get to Barbados.

For those travelling outside of Frankfurt, it took about 12 hours. So, to make up for our emissions, you can find ways to plant a tree. We are working both with tourism and non-governmental organisations such as Coco Hill Forest, Future Centre Trust.

“You can also help restore coral. Barbados has lost about 85 per cent of its coral, and one dive shop working hard to restore it is Barbados Blue. They have been doing this restoration programme for two years and visitors, both divers and those who love the sea, are free to help in this regard,” Nightingale added.

She was speaking with a mix of close to 100 German, Austrian and Swiss travel agents, bloggers, tour operators, social media influencers and airline and travel insurance representatives who were on a familiarisation trip in Barbados.

Barbados is seeking to boost travel from the EU market, as several countries in that region continue to struggle to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control.