The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) is celebrating its 70th year milestone and officials are singing the association’s praises for its contribution to helping to build the island’s bread and butter tourism industry.
In addition, Chairman of the BHTA Renee Coppin is urging tourism industry operators to join the association in an effort to benefit from many opportunities.
Pointing out that the BHTA has been and will continue to support community tourism, Coppin said it is this kind experience that has kept visitors returning to the island over the years.
“We encourage persons once they are forming businesses that benefit from tourism, of course join the BHTA,” said Coppin.
She explained that the association was still in the process of making sure the concessions under the Tourism Development Amendment Act are made available for non-traditional hotels and restaurants.
“For persons who are gaining a significant portion of their revenue from tourism, that will be one of the benefits they will be able to get. We are seeking to make tourism’s benefits more accessible to persons who have businesses that benefit from tourism,” she said.
She made the comments on Thursday while announcing the activities to celebrate the BHTA’s 70th anniversary.
Coppin said she was proud of what the BHTA has been able to achieve for the tourism industry players to date, but acknowledged that there was still a lot of work to be done to get the industry where they ideally would like to see it.
“I can say [we are] comfortable and proud. Comfortable, not to say we are resting on our laurels, but comfortable that we are an association that has continued to be relevant and self sustaining,” said Coppin.
She said the fact that the 350-member association was able to add new members over the past two years speaks volumes of its continued relevance.
“We are comfortable from the perspective that we think we are doing what we should be doing, but we know there is still a lot more that we can do and we are going to continue to push in that direction,” said Coppin.
“Even as the BHTA enters its 70th year we are perhaps even more relevant than we were when we were formed 70 years ago. We continue to provide leadership, advocacy, support and guidance to our industry. We will also continue to seek to be self sustaining . . . and we also want to ensure we have the highest level of engagement with and from our members, who are the backbone of this organisation,” she said.
The year of celebration will officially kick off on June 13 with the BHTA’s hybrid annual general meeting. It will also include a dine around initiative at BHTA member restaurants, the official relaunch of the Student Tourism Education Programme, a webinar that examines the history of tourism, an official launch of its 60th year edition of Island in the Sun, resumption of its Tourism Talks programme, a fun day and other activities that will take the celebrations through a full year.
The celebrations will include the highly-anticipated gala and awards ceremony in October. For this event, there will be new categories and two lifetime achievement awards will be presented given that the association did not get to honour industry operators in 2020 and 2021.
Outgoing Chief Executive Officer of the BHTA Rudy Grant, reflecting on the history of the BHTA, said the organisation, which was formerly known as the Barbados Hotel Association when formed in 1952, has contributed significantly to the island’s tourism and economic development over the past 70 years.
He said the BHTA membership was opened to individuals who are linked to the tourism industr.
“We are about collaborating. We are about seeking to ensure we can continue through those collaborations and partnerships to build a stronger industry. The reality is that the tourism industry contributes significantly to the gross domestic product, contributes significantly to the foreign exchange earnings and a number of other sectors also benefit from the tourism industry.
“There is a strong linkage between the tourism sector and other sectors of the economy and it therefore means that there are players and business operators in other sectors who we welcome to come on board and join us and be in partnership as we seek to better ensure we are developing the industry for the benefit of everyone,” said Grant.
Former chair of the BHTA Cicely Walcott is leading the committee for the BHTA 70th anniversary celebrations.
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