LOCAL AND REGIONAL business appears to be keeping Barbados’ tourist attractions afloat.
Chairman of Premier Attractions of Barbados, Roseanne Myers, said attractions such as Atlantis Submarines; Harrison’s Cave; the Harbour Master and the catamaran cruises were yet to recover from the recession, some recording only marginal gains from last year. However, she said this was not due to a lack of support from the Caribbean.
“The attractions are still feeling the decline, especially when it comes to disposable income even though in general it’s marginally up from 2009
“We expected to do better than last year, but at this point things have not reached where we hoped they would as yet. Business from both the local and regional markets has been strong but our most difficult market has been the United Kingdom.
“It has still been very encouraging as August was quite a good month. The Barbadian diaspora has been embracing tourism related products which is excellent. Also, Trinidad had been supportive of the submarine product, as well as some hotels with the staycation programme.
“We are trying to survive this economic downturn and we are looking forward to a good cruise ship season, which makes up 50 per cent of our income,” she said.
Myers, speaking to the WEEKEND NATION on Wednesday via telephone, said sales began to drop in the last quarter of 2008 and they had been “feeling the pinch” ever since.
In addition to this, Myers, who is also the general manager of Atlantis Submarines, said Government was not as supportive as it was in the past as Government camps were no longer hosting tours to the attractions, thus also affecting revenue. However, she said private camps were still very supportive.
“Government also used to offer the tourism industry a relief fund which allowed us to keep staff employed and get our promotions done, but this wasn’t done this year, which caused some of our attractions to shrink their schedules,” she said.
Myers described the recent move to make Harrison’s Cave more accessible for the differently abled as a very positive step but said it wasn’t enough.
“The cave is leading the way, but there are too many products in the sector which need to get going in that same direction. The cave on its own is not enough to market Barbados as a differently abled friendly destination,” she said.
