Tourism industry braces for 90 per cent hit

For the second time in less than a year, layoffs are said to be looming in the tourism industry, as hotels record hundreds of cancellations for the high-season months of February and March.

Stakeholders told Barbados TODAY the country’s new travel protocols when coupled with the tightening international restrictions have created the “perfect storm” for players in Barbados’ main foreign-exchange earning industry.

Over the last few days, top officials from the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) have been locked in numerous meetings and so far, Chairman Geoffrey Roach and Chief Executive Officer Senator Rudy Grant could not be reached for comment.

In the meantime however, the chief executive of a major South Coast property predicts an 85 to 95 per cent decline in occupancy based on the sheer volume of cancellations over the last few days.

The cancellations started in late December when UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a six-week lockdown that was scheduled to end on February 15th. Adding insult to injury was a recent extension of the measures that includes a ban on citizens leaving the country on leisure travel.

“Of course we saw that decline [in UK bookings] even before the Prime Minister’s announcement. We also saw reductions in the other source markets including Canada and the USA [United States of America], because they too have imposed very strict restrictions with respect to their citizens travelling. So while December was a better month, we have now seen sharp declines for the months of February and March,” the senior executive told Barbados TODAY on condition of anonymity.

“A traditional February or March would have given us a 80 to 90 per cent occupancy, but from what we are seeing in the books, there is a decline as high as 85-90 per cent compared to what we would have been accustomed to…In some cases you will be in the teens in terms of occupancy and it will fluctuate,” the source added.

In addition to the measures at the source markets, PM Mottley has announced numerous new restrictions that are all expected to deter prospective visitors. The mandatory quarantine period for arriving passengers will be extended from two days to five and officials in the Ministry of Tourism are working with airlines to reduce the number of inbound flights.

The impending closures are expected to trigger the types of cutbacks that displaced hundreds of hotel workers in 2020 and resulted in a series of ugly wildcat protests over severance pay at the end of the year. Also concerning is the hoteliers’ continued reluctance to accept financial assistance through the Barbados Economic Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme that was introduced last year to keep hotel workers employed.

“There will be staff reductions and layoffs in some cases and you will find that across a number of properties on the island,” the executive warned.

“This will be a period where hotels will be looking very closely at cost containment and so on, but I haven’t heard of any planned closures.

“It is almost like the perfect storm, because you have all of the restrictions coming out of the source markets and with us being considered a high-risk destination, it seems everything is coming into one pot and is significantly impacting visitor business here,” the official added.

With short-stay tourism shelved for the foreseeable future, hotel execs are said to be banking on quarantining visitors who arrive under the Welcome Stamp Initiative.

At the time of publication, Barbados TODAY was also awaiting word from Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins. (kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)