Harrison Cave back in business

Barbados’ most popular tourist attraction, Harrison’s Cave, officially reopened on Friday, welcoming scores of locals and visitors for the first time in about 16 months.

Officials are upbeat about the future of the facility which is to undergo some major improvements over the next six months.

After closing in March last year, the St Thomas attraction was originally scheduled to reopen on July 2, but that was delayed by a week due to the passage of Hurricane Elsa that day.

Marc Melville, Chief Executive Officer of Chukka Caribbean Adventures, the new operators of Harrison Cave, said he was pleased with Friday’s turnout.

“We have gotten a lot of locals and a lot of school kids and tourists. We are very, very pleased. We restarted the park with electronic check-in and making reservations online on our website. We are pleasantly surprised with the amount of walk-ins that we have had from people who have seen the information coming out about the park,” he said.

Melville said that from interacting with locals, he found out a number of them had not been to the location in decades, and he was happy they decided to visit again.

“It is very refreshing. It has the appeal . . . . We are very excited about it. We could not have asked for anything more,” he said.

The new-look Harrison’s Cave Eco-adventure Park, which opened with 40 workers and a new logo, will consist of several exciting features, including a freefall platform, challenge course, children’s play area, suspension bridge, bird aviary, dry slide, interactive green monkey experience and canopy zipline.

Most of this development is expected to be completed by January next year, and employment is set to increase to about 100 by then.

Pointing out that a recent study had already been done on the integrity of the cave, Melville said there was the possibility of expanding even further.

“It has been the same product for about three decades so we do need to expand the actual cave experience itself, but I don’t think we should do it in the same way. There are lots of other ways to see these new parts of the cave but in a more interactive and different way. I have some ideas,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Product Development Officer with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) Marsha Alleyne told Barbados TODAY she was most encouraged by the highly trained and engaging staff members at the location.

“I think it augers well for what Chukka has in store for Harrison’s Cave. I think the plans they have in store, the value-added segments, certainly auger well for Barbados as a tourist destination and the product offering we have here on island. So I am very excited,” she said.

“Today was a very exciting day and it is just a taste of what is to come, so we look forward to some really amazing things from the cave, and Chukka altogether.”

Tammy McCamish, who was visiting with her family, told Barbados TODAY they extended their vacation by a week so they could tour the cave.

“I thought it was really fascinating, very educational, and it gives you the idea of how this was formed and what they had to go through to get into the cave,” she said.

The family of seven from California, United States had an “amazing time”, she said, adding that the tour was the highlight of her trip to the island.

She said should her family decide to return to Barbados they would definitely be visiting the location again so they could participate in the planned activities. (MM)