Barbados’ tourism product continues to take a harsh beating from the COVID-19 pandemic, having seen a dramatic decline of 93 per cent in tourist arrivals for the first month of this year.
However, industry officials say they remain optimistic of a rebound in coming months as vaccination against the virus continues globally and given that demand for the island remained high in key source markets.
In January 2021, the island welcomed a meagre 4,285 long-stay visitors, compared to the 61, 218 who visited in January 2020.
Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Senator Rudy Grant told an online media update that for the month under review, the US market witnessed the greatest decline.
“In our major source markets – the United States declined by 95 per cent, Canada declined by 94 per cent, the United Kingdom declined by 93.5 per cent, and Germany declined by 93 per cent. So the decline in terms of the visitor arrival numbers for 2021 has been significant,” reported Grant.
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago, Barbados started to witness sharp declines in arrivals, which resulted in hotel occupancy levels plunging as low as six per cent some months.
Even when commercial flights resumed in July last year, arrival numbers and hotel occupancy rates remained disturbingly low.
Grant told reporters that while he was optimistic of a “reasonable” tourism performance when the tourism winter season started around December 15, that hope quickly faded as countries began to experience a second wave of the virus and started putting restrictive measures in place.
He recalled that occupancy levels moved from well over 70 per cent in January last year to 40 per cent in February, and six per cent in May before gradually rising again in December.
“Indeed, the occupancy for December was approximately 48.6 per cent and that occupancy would have been higher than the months of September, October and November, which averaged 25 per cent for each of those months. So we would have seen the increase taking place in December,” said Grant.
However, he said: “We had our challenges. There was the communication that came from Government on December 31, and we would have seen then some measures that were put in place and there were also some actions that were taken in our source markets. Therefore, the business that was anticipated in January 2021, we certainly have not seen.
“While we understood it would be very challenging, we never expected that we would have been in that kind of position,” said Grant, who pointed out that prior to the New Year’s lockdown the staycation programme was also performing well.
In fact, Grant said at some point, staycation offerings were responsible for the bumping up of occupancy levels for some hotels, which reached as high as between 60 and 70 per cent some months. However, he said revenues remained low.
“So the average daily rate, for example, those would have been down as well. So that there was less revenue coming in as businesses sought to keep open. But the staycation component was contributing in a positive way for many hotels. What has happened now is that the staycation component is not there because of the new measures in place,” said Grant, who pointed out that rates across the board were significantly reduced.
Despite the gloom hovering over the industry, Grant said the island was still “highly sought after” and he expected “reasonable” airlift to return once countries lifted restrictions.
Chairman of the BHTA Geoffrey Roach said he remained optimistic of a slow rebound, pointing out that this was especially based on high demand in key source markets.
“As you know, while we are faced with a lockdown in the UK and the Canadian markets, when we speak with the tour operators in those markets as well as the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. teams who represent us in those markets, the feedback we are receiving across the board is that the demand for Barbados is still high,” he said.
“That level of demand for Barbados in particular, we do not expect that will go away. But it means that following COVID you will probably still have to put some additional efforts into your marketing,” said Roach, who acknowledged that older people may be hesitant to take a trip.
He added that a part of building confidence among people in Barbados’ key source markets would be the ongoing vaccination programmes.
“So I think what we are seeing now across the world where the vaccine is actually being administered does provide the opportunity to rebuild travel confidence,” he said.
In relation to the cruise industry, which has been at a standstill for the past several months, Roach said he was anticipating “a slow resurgence” by year end. However, he said it would be critical for countries to have corresponding protocols in place and continue to build confidence among would-be cruisers.
Pointing out that “a lot of work has started” with stakeholders, Roach said “We expect that cruise should hopefully resume later this year but it will not be at November 2019 numbers. We will probably see a few ships coming back in then a gradual increase over time as people become a lot more comfortable. And cruise is dependent on airlift as well.” (marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)
