Small businesses urged to join BHTA

The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) is making a clarion call for small businesses to join the organisation and take advantage of the many available opportunities.

Chairman Renée Coppin said there was great potential for growth and business development for new members, noting that the BHTA has, within its membership, “every kind of
business”. 

“From Courts, the distribution side, to supermarkets to some of our recent members [such as] taxi operators, the usual hotels, restaurants [and so on]; but we have a range of different types of businesses [such as] Flow and Digicel. 

“The networking within itself is worthwhile – having connections with the people that you want to introduce to your product, meeting with the guest services agents who are going to tell the tourists to ‘go to my cheese cutter shop’, and there’s value in that. So, I think it is extremely good value for money for any business that touches the tourism space,” she said.

Coppin was speaking to the media during a quarterly briefing on Tuesday at the BHTA headquarters.

Meanwhile, the association’s Chief Executive Officer Ryan Forde told reporters that the BHTA was working with the Department of Emergency Management and other stakeholders to ensure its emergency response strategies and planning remained up to scratch. 

He added that the organisation was partnering with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture for education and training possibilities and to see how tourism partners could strengthen linkages with the agriculture industry.

Forde said that throughout the year, the BHTA along with other industry stakeholders such as the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. took part in several successful international travel trade shows. (SZB)