Touring Barbados

Barbados’ tourism product may be in for a big boost with the addition of over a dozen locations to the list of official places to visit.

On Monday, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), the agency tasked with marketing the island’s bread and butter industry unveiled the new places of interest and a plan to use more taxi operators to share stories about the island’s rich heritage and history with visitors.

Acting Chief Executive Officer Marsha Alleyne said a part of the plan was to increase tourist spend on the island and expose more local shops and entrepreneurs to visitors and especially cruise passengers.

“All of this is helping us to ensure that our visitor spend is increased, because at the end of the day we want that visitor spend to increase and we want more persons who come off of our cruise ships to explore the island. That means there will be economic empowerment for a lot more persons than traditionally we would have had,” Alleyne told a press conference at the BTMI headquarters in Warrens.

“It is pretty much a staple going to some of the greathouses and in terms of the experiences across Barbados, but some of the other little-known destination spots across the island, a lot of our guests do not know,” said Alleyne.

According to data from the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), tourist spend in Barbados for the 2018 period was an estimated US$1.13 billion, excluding passenger transport expenses. There was not immediate data on how much is spent on tours and attractions on the island annually.

Speaking ahead of a familiarisation expedition to the new tour locations with 60 taxi operators – 30 each from the Independent Seaport Taxi Union and Bridgetown Port Taxi Co-op Society Ltd. – Alleyne said it formed part of a larger training initiative through the BTMI’s partnership with the associations.

“We had an opportunity to be able to create a number of tours with the assistance of the operators. We created 14 new tours that are not on the regular on-shore experiences calendar, and tours that expose persons to the rich heritage we have here on the island,” she said.

The initiative to train taxi operators to offer new tours came out of the Seatrade Cruise Global conference and expo in April and a subsequent meeting between taxi operators and top cruise industry officials.

“What they can do where a lot of the large coaches cannot, is to offer individualised experiences in 12-seater vehicles and take people to places you otherwise would not know,” said Alleyne.

“We really want our visitors to have a greater sense that Barbados is more than just the sea, sand and the attractions that are well-known,” she said, adding that visitors were increasingly “moving away” from the traditional and want to have non-traditional experiences.

“They want to live like a local and do things like a local,” Alleyne explained.

For Monday’s five-hour familiarisation tour, the taxi operators were paired with two historians and a storyteller as they visited several spots across the island in two coaches – one travelling north and one travelling south – to places such as the Newton Slave Burial Ground, the Quaker burial ground, Thelma’s sportsgrill, the train ruins in Belleplaine St Andrew, Belize Plantation, the Arawak Temple, Porey Spring, St Thomas and the Golden Square Freedom Park in Bridgetown, among other heritage spots.

Alleyne, who is the Chief Product Development Officer at the BTMI, said officials would ensure that the new tours are recorded and translated in different languages and shared with the taxi operators so they can share with visitors.

She also disclosed that the BTMI was in the process of doing financial management training with taxi operators and were also examining a cashless payment system. Alleyne reported that the BTMI has also embarked on a series of capacity-building training programmes with taxi operators, including social media management, which was done earlier this year, as well as service quality management.

“We have a lot to do, and we have done a lot of work, but we are committed to working with the associations. We know that when they win we win as a destination as well,” said Alleyne.

Vice President of the Independent Seaport Taxi Union Anderson Connell welcomed the initiative, saying that members of that association were excited and looking forward to it for “quite a while”.

“There are a lot of places that we are going to be going to that we haven’t been before, and that is one of the main things we greatly appreciate in this. We do tours every day but there is a tonne of history out there. The more we know the better for us. We can show our customers more and engage with them, and dialogue with them even better,” said Connell.

Vice President of the Bridgetown Port Taxi Co-op Society Ltd. Stephen Clarke also welcomed the initiative, saying he was hoping his members would also learn a lot more so they can better share with visitors about the locations.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb