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Barbados’ tourism industry recovering

by Randy Bennett
3 min read
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Barbados’ tourism industry is on the road to recovery with arrivals almost on par with pre-pandemic levels.

That is according to Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill who said tourist arrivals for the 2022-2023 winter season as well as cruise ship arrivals were close to 2019 figures.

In fact, Gooding-Edghill said contrary to reports, Barbados’ performance was in some instances superior to other highly touted islands in the Caribbean.

Speaking at a press conference Saturday afternoon at the Ministry of Tourism’s Warrens, St Michael headquarters, Gooding-Edghill said data showed an upward trend for the winter season.

He said only on December 29, the Grantley Adams International Airport recorded the highest number of arrivals in one day since 2019, with over 3000 arrivals.

“From all data and information, I am happy to say we are experiencing an upward trend in the momentum for this winter season. This is demonstrated by my personal interaction with several tourism partners in retail, accommodation, wholesale suppliers, transportation and water sports operators.

“We are into our first winter season in the post-pandemic era where all travel protocols have now been removed. I am pleased to report that we have monitored our performance in the first instance by comparing this winter’s visitor arrivals to pre-pandemic years. I must also caution that this is not about beating our chest because we are still in the recovery mode,” Gooding-Edghill said.

In giving some figures, the minister said in December 2018, tourist arrivals from the island’s biggest source market, the UK, were 26, 265. For the same period in 2019, those arrivals dropped to 24, 994.

However, Gooding-Edghill said in December 2022, they were 26, 080 tourist arrivals from the UK.

“Based on the December 2022 arrivals it is clear that arrivals from that market for the month of December exceeded 2019 and were almost equal to 2018. So once we get back to that 2018 level, of course, that will start to show you that we are getting there and recovering well,” he said.

Gooding-Edghill admitted that some markets “were recovering faster than others.”

He revealed that during the last quarter when compared to 2019, the UK was at 94 per cent recovery rate, Canada was at 80 per cent, the US was at 70 per cent, while arrivals from within the Caribbean were at a 60 per cent recovery rate.

In relation to the cruise sector, Gooding-Edghill said in December 2018, there were 43 cruise ships, 78 calls and 29, 138 passengers that disembarked.

In contrast, he said in December 2022, there were 41 ships, 70 calls and 29, 552 passengers that disembarked.

Gooding-Edghill said it was anticipated that cruise ship arrivals would be “in the vicinity of” 698, 512. He said that figure was a 10 per cent increase when compared to 2019 when there were 637, 212 cruise ship arrivals.

Yesterday during a press conference, president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood suggested that Barbados’ tourism sector was not performing as well as other Caribbean islands including Grenada, St Lucia, St Kitts and Jamaica.

However, Gooding-Edghill said he was “more than satisfied” that Barbados was not only on par, but in some instances surpassed the performance of those other destinations.

“I am more than satisfied that we are on par. I’ve been hearing this view being proposed out there that the others are moving ahead of us, but truth be told, when you go and examine Barbados’ airlift numbers, you look at our capacity, you look at the number of aircraft that land at the GAIA in one day, some of our partners that’s what they get in a week,” he contended.

“I’m not putting down anyone competitively…and I’m not getting into that debate but I bring data to prove to you that when compared to some of the competitors we are very well advanced.” (RB)

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