The following article (by Renice Bostic) is reproduced from the Barbados Advocate (28/06/2013):
MINISTER
of Tourism and International Transport, The Hon. Richard Sealy, has deemed
claims that St. Lucia has surpassed Barbados in relation to tourism as
outrageous and incorrect.
While
emphasising that he was not in any way trying to bring down the neighbouring
island, he stated that before such claims are made, persons need to look at the
baseline of where the industry is coming from.
“Barbados
is still a high-sellable market, the name Barbados means something and there is
still a great demand for tourism services in Barbados,” he stated.
The
minister claimed he did not get involved in the discussion previously because
he does not think it is appropriate for him to appear to put down St. Lucia in
any way and he still will not take that route. However, he urged persons at the
annual general meeting of The Barbados National Trust to look at the reality of
the situation.
“If
we had to be perfectly honest, St. Lucia is at least 30 years behind Barbados
in terms of tourism…that’s the reality. St. Lucia has three Sandals properties
so they get a lot of American visitors coming, but we still get more American
tourists than they do. Our UK airlift is what is actually sustaining the St. Lucian
tourism industry.”
Minister
Sealy also stated that the notion of looking solely at percentage improvement
does not tell the entire story, because one really must look at the starting
point of the country’s industry.
“If
Guyana was getting ten tourists a year and then they are getting twenty, that’s
a hundred per cent improvement. So you can’t look at a mature destination like
Barbados – we’ve been in this for over fifty years – and look at the percentage
increase. You have to look at what’s optimal,” he further commented.
In
the case of Montserrat, Sealy stated that they previously had negative growth
because of the volcano, but now they are having positive growth. “So do you say
that Montserrat is outperforming Barbados?”
Conversely,
he stated that he is not naïve to the fact that Barbados has recorded some
declines in tourist arrivals, and attributes this to the fact that Barbados has
been heavily reliant on the UK market which, at the moment, is not very stable.
“When
they are sending home people by the tens of thousands, don’t expect that the
British will come here in droves. It is not going to happen. We continue to
push the brand in the UK, but we are diversifying our market so that the next
time a recession comes, we will not find ourselves solely dependent on any
single source market.”
Source:
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=local&NewsID=31282
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