Tourism officials are concerned about the steady decline in visitor arrivals from the region over the past several months, although they are hopeful the Crop Over festival will result in more business come July/August.
Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Rudy Grant said since the collapse and subsequent restructuring of Antigua-based Caribbean airline LIAT, there has been a dramatic falloff in visitor arrivals from the region.
“The regional airlift is challenging. It is nowhere close to the airlift you would have had in 2019. A lot of that is due mainly to the fact that LIAT, as you know, has gone through some serious restructuring, and the additional airlines that have come in and the seat capacities that they bring have not been able to replace the LIAT seats. So, we do have a challenge there,” he said.
Grant explained that the Caribbean market accounted for just around 15 per cent of visitor arrivals prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and before the LIAT restructuring which took place in mid-2020.
However, he said, that now hovered at just over 11 per cent.
“So, we have seen a decline in the Caribbean market and that is due mainly to the fact that the air seats coming into Barbados are not as high as they would have been before,” said Grant.
“I do know that there are some carriers that are looking to put on additional airlift, but even when that occurs it would not be at the pre-pandemic 2019 level when LIAT was functioning. So, it is in the area that does need to have some further attention.”
Grant said the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) recently reached out to the BHTA about a partnership on an overall “airlift strategy” that was currently being assessed.
“We are in the process of evaluating that and will communicate further. But the regional airlift is challenging and it is an area where we need to have a greater focus and attention. What we have seen with respect to overall airlift – the return of 90 per cent-plus – a lot of that is driven from what is happening in the international source markets as opposed to what is happening regionally,” he said.
The BHTA official said he was hoping that the hosting of Crop Over this year would help to boost arrivals from the regional market and increase the meagre 30 per cent average hotel occupancy currently projected for the summer months.
He also lamented that projected revenues for the upcoming summer months were dismal.
“We are anticipating that we will have Crop Over and that is going to be very positive in the sense that the anticipation is that we will see additional numbers coming in during the summer period,” said Grant.
Reflecting on the recent influx of UK cricket fans for Test matches last month, Grant said: “When there are specific activities and you are able to encourage persons to come and attend then you can have a boost with respect to those numbers.
“We are working with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and the Ministry of Tourism to see how collaboratively we are able to encourage more persons to come to Barbados during the summer.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of the BHTA Renee Coppin said most tourism industry operators were about to enter a bleak summer and were very concerned since the performance over the coming months could determine if many of them stay in business.
“Right now, most of us are what you call skint. So, we are going into the summer period where a lot of us do not have the necessary cash reserves. We have exhausted all of the reserves we do have and so we are very mindful of the fact that this summer really is going to matter in terms of the survivability of many of our businesses and many of our members, and we take that very seriously,” said Coppin.
Pledging that the BHTA would be doing what it could to help drive business for the summer months, she said greater focus will be placed on some niche areas including sport tourism and specific campaigns.
In relation to the Crop Over festival, Coppin said: “We are really hopeful that we will be able to have a good Crop Over season this year. I think it is going to be import to signal to the world that we are really open for business and to give confidence to the summer as we go forward. So, we are really looking forward to having Crop Over rolled out”.
The Crop Over season is expected to begin officially on July 2. (MM)
