New BTMI chief outlines priorities as she steps into role

The Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) new chief executive officer Andrea Franklin officially took up office on Tuesday, saying her top priorities will be to collaborate with key players, grow tourism sustainably and embrace technology. 

She told journalists in a media briefing at the BTMI’s headquarters in Warrens that she was looking forward to putting measures in place to ensure the tourism industry remained a crucial contributor to the Barbadian economy.

“It is going to be an interesting journey, a long journey [ahead],” she said. “But as we grow together, we will build on the foundation that has been set from those who have been with us in the past; we will learn from their mistakes and we will grow together.

“Coming into this role, I think that it is important that collaboration is at the top for me in terms of other stakeholders. Both within the industry [and] other ministries, we need to work closely together for the betterment of the country. Tourism is not only about us here at BTMI or the Ministry of Tourism; tourism touches the length and breadth of the country and I think it’s important that we collaborate across the board as much as possible.”

For tourism’s sustainable growth, Franklin said her strategy would incorporate workers in the field, from fisherfolk and farmers to small artisans. She said it was important to “bring along other persons as we build out tourism across the board; that is a more sustainable approach to how we go about doing things”.

The BTMI boss also said there is much work to be done to “defend” the airlift the agency has secured through partnerships with international tourism companies. 

She added: “Embracing the technology, that’s one of the things that I would like to look at in terms of how we enhance our marketing effort [and] our processes, making it a little easier for us here and a little more exciting in terms of our marketing. And at the end of it all, we all do it based on solid research and the data drives the decisions that we make.”

For the first time, the CEO’s position is supported by a chief operating officer, a post which has been filled by BTMI veteran Cheryl Carter. Together, Franklin and Carter have about 46 years of experience in the tourism industry.

During the briefing, Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill said he was confident in the abilities of both leaders.

In her remarks, Carter said the team will also be looking at emerging markets “so that we can build out not just what we are traditionally used to, but looking at how we can tap into other areas of the world”. 

“We’re already seeing some signs that there is great interest in Barbados from nontraditional regions,” she said.

Carter added that due to travelling restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the past three years, there was a lot of pent up demand to visit the island, especially from the traditional United Kingdom market.

“Barbados remained, for a very long time, one of the only open markets; we saw a lot of shifts away to Barbados. We maintained a presence in the market . . . and we’ve seen the success of all of those tactics . . . and because of the pent up demand, we then saw the results- 2023 for the UK actually was a record year,” the COO noted.

Carter added that while the Latin America market has not fully rebounded from the pandemic, its growth pace has picked up.

She also said that work was being done to promote Barbados beyond the traditional image of sun, sand and beach.

On this note, Gooding-Edghill said there will be more community-based tourism initiatives which the BTMI will announce at a later date. (SZB)