A drop in visitor spending is still a major challenge for the tourist industry.
President of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA), Colin Jordan, says hotels, restaurants, car rental agencies and tourist attractions are all feeling the squeeze.
“We have some of our attractions who have indicated to us that this past September has been even worse than the September before,” Jordan told reporters at Island Inn Hotel today.
He says that while tourist arrivals are up four per cent this year, “the challenge that we are having in the tourism private sector has to do with spend”.
He says tourists are going to restaurants less and people are renting cars for shorter periods of time or just not renting at all.
“There are persons who are now seen catching the bus to the airport with their bags when they are going to be departing.”
With the tourist attractions, “people are not visiting as much as they used to”, he says.
Jordan says the reduced spending reflected caution by tourists, given uncertainty about the world economy.
“That caution on the part of our guests is really impacting our tourism businesses,” he concedes.
He says the BHTA is now working on recommendations to deal with the spending problem.
