MODERN TOURISTS are not simply looking for sun, sea and sand.
“They don’t want to just come, sit on the beach and have rum and coke, they want to go back to their destinations and be able to brag, and the best way to do that is to give them an experience they will never forget,” said Dr Ena Harvey, the hemisphere specialist at the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA).
She said Barbados needed to establish cultural centres such as a living sugar museum which had greater potential than traditional tourism offerings.
Harvey was speaking yesterday at the launch of the St George Parish Independence Committee’s project at Brighton Plantation, which aims to transform the former sugar factory at Bulkeley, St George, into a sugar museum.
She said such facilities existed in other countries, adding that there were plenty of opportunities available for Barbados.
“It’s not just the sugar factory; it’s about the people, their lives, stories, songs, poetry, dances and life in the rural community. Tourists are paying to go and live in rural communities for their vacations and this can represent possible tourism income right here in the community,” she said.
Harvey said St George did not have a beach but it did possess unique services in terms of crops, food processing and plants which were invaluable to the hotel industry.
“There are myriad opportunities to develop a heritage tourism product in St George and a living sugar museum could be the queen of the package. We have so much in our communities in this beautiful St George valley that can be utilised with dignity and to create wealth and prosperity in St George,” she said.
Project coordinator Heather Fields said their theme was St George – The Sugar Basket And Economic Bedrock Of Barbados. She said they were seeking to link the parish’s physical heritage to its agricultural heritage with tours and video interviews of people who used to work on plantations which she said would be presented to the Barbados Museum.
As for the sugar museum, Fields said they would be speaking with organisations such as the IICA and the Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation to see how feasible the idea was.
The event was attended by Minister of Agriculture Haynesley Benn and Member of Parliament for St George South Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo. (CA)
