The tourism industry is in for a boost from local entrepreneur Robin Belle.
His vision is to make Barbados “the mobile lifestyle capital of the world by 2020”.
Belle, 40, is the owner of Caribbean Interactive Media Inc., a mobile development company. With the creation of an Apple-platform application (app) called iBarbados – an interactive mobile destination guide within Barbados – Belle said he was in the process of making the island more attractive to visitors.
iBarbados is an interactive app for visitors. After a year of developing the app, it became available on the Apple app store in April and in less than a month there were over 145 downloads, according to Belle.
He told BARBADOS?BUSINESS?AUTHORITY this application was “part of a national development initiative for the island”.
“iBarbados is more than just an app. The app is a centrepiece or the foundation of national economic development for Barbados.
“What we are trying to do here is to leverage the global mobile revolution that is currently taking place to give Barbados a major competitive edge in the global marketplace.
“All over the world consumers are switching to smartphones from feature phones,” he said, “so it is a very personal medium and one that allows businesses to communicate directly and personally with each individual consumer.
“What we have noticed and what research has shown is that not all smartphones are created equally, so we are focused specifically on the Apple smartphones and other Apple devices,” Belle explained, saying that more emphasis should be placed on high-end visitors so as to maximize foreign exchange.
“This app is designed as a development for Barbados as well because it seeks not just to boost tourism, but all those ancillary industries: manufacturing, culture, music and fashion. All of those are going to be helped by this.
“We have what is called the Box Office section, so you can come here and look for things relating to fashion, sports or whatever. Whatever your interest is as a visitor, you will find it,” he said.
He said while the iBarbados app was not necessarily a new concept, the difference was that his app was free and interactive.
“Apart from iBarbados there are some nine other Barbados apps in the app store. But none of them are taking this approach. This is a free app and all the others are paid apps ranging from US$0.99 to over US$5; they are just compiled information about Barbados and presented in an app to attempt to make revenue from people travelling to Barbados,” he said.
So just how profitable will this be and how exactly does it work?
“Businesses pay to have an advertising presence in the directory. So businesses then are able to interact with the tourists.
“Tourists are here and they are thinking about where they are going to have dinner, they don’t have to go walk up and down the coast, they can just pull out their phone while they are sitting in the shade and see what is available,” explained Belle.
Once the app is downloaded on the mobile device, business operators who have a presence on the app would be able to send notifications to the individual including deals. That individual is also able to access information about the island, where to party and shop, among other things.
He said a part of the objective was “to bring a visitor to Barbados who has more money to spend”. Belle said the app would over time “extract” more foreign exchange from visitors even after they left the island.
“We want to be able to say, when we bring somebody in, that is somebody who has the [potential] to leave significant foreign exchange in Barbados. Also, apart from attracting that type of individual to Barbados, the object here is to extend the engagement with that individual and extend the time frame that they can be providing foreign exchange to Barbados,” he said.
“The mobile app makes that possible through the push notifications in the app and based on preferences that person may have. We can send targeted message to that individual.
“For example, they may come down here and fall in love with the pepper sauce and carry back two bottles but in two months that is gone and that is the end of that until they get a chance to come down here again, but via the app, all those pepper sauces can be presented in an e-commerce store and they can place an order,” explained Belle, adding that there were no challenges in developing this app.
He also had advice for those in the manufacturing sector. “It is not that we want to leave traditional manufacturing behind but they need to adopt and adapt. . . . There is absolutely no reason why when you are making a coffee table that you can’t build a dock in it to charge an iPad, for example,” said Belle.
Belle said he has been getting “very positive” feedback about iBarbados and people understand the potential of it.
