Follow Me hits bump

LACK OF AIRLIFT is undermining the Follow Me To Crop-Over promotion in neighbouring islands.Chairman of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) Ken Knight told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday the annual promotions in Trinidad and St Lucia had generated a lot of interest again this year, but that fact will not be reflected in actual numbers.Knight said close to 2 800 people were expected from Trinidad and another 1 200 from St Lucia this Crop-Over, but the numbers could be considerably higher.“If the powers that be in tourism and civil aviation can resolve that problem, Barbados would be flourishing at Crop-Over,” he observed.Knight lamented the fact that LIAT was the only carrier flying between the islands since BWIA quit several years ago and has not been replaced. Airlift capacity has been significantly reduced ever since.“That is where we take our lashes. So until we can drive that home, I don’t know what the answer is,” Knight said, adding that both he and Minister of Community Development and Culture Steve Blackett had previously met with Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy on the issue. “I’m also mindful of the fact that there are limitations of equipment that is available . . . . The market is there, but the airlift is not there,” he stressed.“The Follow Me To Crop-Over has caught on. If we can have the airlift, we will have a lot of excitement out of the region for Crop-Over,” he added.While there is seemingly no solution to boosting the numbers from the region for Crop-Over, Knight said arrivals from the North American market will be booming this year.He said they were doing a lot of indirect promotion in North America through the various groups.The NCF chair did not have supporting figures, but he said plane-loads of people will be coming from Canada this season.“There are a lot of promotional flights out of Canada, and air fares are comparatively lower than in previous years. We’ve been getting a lot of buzz in terms of people coming down from the Toronto area, Montreal and Hamilton. So we expect a higher number of Barbadians coming in from Canada than in previous years,” he revealed.High numbers are expected from Miami, New York, New Jersey and Boston, which was largely due to the NCF/BTA promotion done at the Labour Day parade in New York every September, and organised trips through Barbadian and West Indian groups.