Operating a small hotel, clearly I have to declare a bias towards this subsector. But from a national point of view in terms of revenue and employment generation, have we ever analyzed which type of our diverse lodging offerings proportionally delivers the highest net income to the country year after year?
What type of accommodation provides the most jobs per occupied room night and highest percentage turnover that remains in Barbados?
And this should not include just bed nights but secondary spending in restaurants, attractions, activities, car rentals, shopping and so on.
We should then ask which subsector consistently achieves the closest to published rack room rates without having to dramatically discount to attract tour operators, then question which properties solicit the highest levels of guest satisfaction and repeat guests.
If the world’s largest travel website TripAdvisor can be used as a barometer, does the fact that every one of the top-ten rated hotels in Barbados are small have any significance?
This really goes back to ensuring our national marketing organization, advertising agency and public relations company, all fully understand the product.
Perhaps many people reading this column would be surprised to learn that there is no portion of the annual budget of the Barbados Tourism Authority dedicated to this niche.
Nor is there a small hotels committee or product club and that the only trade body dedicated to this sub-sector, Intimate Hotels, has had its Government grant either severely pruned or eliminated altogther.
Add to this that out of our total of almost 160 registered hotels, nearly 120 are defined as small.
Most people, whether inside the industry or not, understand that Government is under severe fiscal pressure and due to this, even previously approved budgets have not been implemented to allow all the allocated funds to be used.
I recently attended a general marketing meeting where members were asked to put forward suggestions to combat what appears to be imminent softening of flight loadings over the next couple of months.
Call it naivety if you wish, but I believe there is always something that can be done, even if the overall effect might not redress the total problem. The stumbling block was that even if solutions were proffered, the monies to implement the ideas were not necessarily available, at least not from the public sector.
It’s a catch-22 situation for Government. If you don’t fill the rooms, you cannot collect the VAT payable – not only on the accommodation but all the secondary spending.
Add up all the other taxes the administration collects, like departure and income tax, National Insurance Scheme contributions and the benefits resulting from the redistribution of employee earnings into the economy.
Without these, it makes it even more difficult for Government to pay the bills.
Almost reconfirming the concerns about airlift as this column was going to Press, Virgin Atlantic launched a new rewards offer for its Flying Club members called Two For One. For travel up to May 31, two people can travel from Manchester or Gatwick to Barbados for 47 500 miles return.
While taxes are still payable, it literally halves the normal cost of a ticket and I hope that our tourism planners make full use of this opportunity.