Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins expressed cautious optimism about the future of the industry, as she announced several signs that point to a rebound in the sector by the end of this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Giving an overview of the state of the industry on Tuesday at the Barbados Hilton Resort, Cummins painted a picture of a strong return in stay-over and cruise arrivals by the winter season, with many of the island’s visitors currently coming out of the United States market and strong bookings for future travel out of the United Kingdom.
Due to the restrictions associated with a third and fourth wave of the pandemic in some key source markets, Barbados welcomed only 21 074 stay-over visitors between January and July 11.
This represents a major reduction of 86.9 per cent, or 139 476 fewer visitors when compared to the same period in 2020, a year that was already challenging with the island starting to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Cummins pointed to very promising signs of a major rebound, stating that for the month of July alone, there was already a 49.8 per increase in visitor arrivals from the US, when compared to last year. This was followed by a 23.4 per cent increase in the UK market.
What’s more, Cummins reported that forward bookings were looking healthy, pointing out that there was an immediate uptick in bookings from the UK for the summer and fall period following the announcement that Barbados was on the UK’s ‘green list’ for travel.
“This is because of the pent up demand – how long the UK market has been closed, how much aggression [in marketing] has been put into this by our market and other sun destinations, and the fact that our snowbirds wanted to travel,” said Cummins.
The Tourism Minister further reported that when stacked up against last year, there was a 398.9 per cent increase in bookings out of the UK, with at least one travel partner, but individuals were making bookings to travel at different times of the year.
“The overall outlook for the sector is positive, but cautious. If I have learned anything, I am not putting all my eggs in any basket,” she said.
In relation to airlift, Cummins noted that American Airlines and JetBlue have both amended flights schedules from key US gateways with the possibility of increasing capacity as demand for travel to Barbados increases from that market.
“We have the African-American travellers, the diasporic travellers, the business travellers, as well as the regular leisure travellers coming out of the US. It means that we have to give people an opportunity to come and go from Barbados with reliable and affordable airlift,” said Cummins.
“It is on that basis that we have been engaging with our airline partners over the last few weeks and months to be able to able to get to a place where we can synchronize increasing our airlift capacity while at the same time managing our domestic circumstances and enforcing the protocols.”
Cummins said that perhaps the most exciting news was that, starting September 1, American Airlines will be moving to a daily service in addition to a twice-daily service on Saturday.
“Later in the year, we will have three flights on Saturdays. That gives us significant airlift capacity on American Airlines,” said Cummins.
American Airlines currently has five weekly flights to Barbados out of Miami, with a load factor of 98 per cent for July and 91 per cent for August.
JetBlue has a daily service to Barbados out of New York, which is expected to increase to twice daily from December. The airline is also expected to increase its weekly service out of Boston to twice weekly.
Air Canada has two weekly flights to Barbados from Toronto, which are expected to be ramped up by November. WestJet, also out of Canada, is expected to resume service from November.
Effective the end of this month, British Airways will increase its flight capacity on its London, Heathrow to Bridgetown route, while Virgin Atlantic, which will also be increasing its flight capacity, will commence its daily London, Heathrow service to Barbados from next Sunday.
The country is also set to welcome new airlift out of Europe, through KLM, starting October 1. Aer Lingus and Lufthansa are also expected to resume service later this year.
Cummins added that Barbados was finalizing negotiations with officials in the Middle East and Africa to get air links to Bridgetown by the end of this year.
In relation to cruise, she said Bridgetown will become a homeport for several cruises, beginning with Royal Caribbean and PMO Cruises.
The Tourism Minister said she remained concerned about the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant in some markets, but gave the assurance that local officials will be enforcing the strict protocols currently in place.
“While we want to take advantage of the pent-up demand and we want to be able to fill those flights, we want to be able to do that safely. So, for us, our restrictions – while they are more [stringent] than other countries even in the region – allow us to put those buffers in place,” she said, adding that most visitors coming to the island were vaccinated.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
