Has Barbados lost its appeal as a leading tourist destination?
Twenty-fourteen was a period of marked recovery for Barbados.
At the end of December, visitor arrivals were up 2.2 per cent year-on-year due in no small part to strong economic recovery and improved consumer confidence in traditional and emerging markets. It is the first sign of positive growth in two years and all industry partners must be commended for playing their respective parts in helping get us to this point.
This is admirable, considering that our destination is one of the more matured holiday spots in the region and with a very high repeat visitor rate.
It also comes against the background that there was a projection of a four per cent decline in arrivals. In the cruise sector, we were able to secure some 557 989 passengers. Home porting activity was five per cent below the previous year due to a decrease in calls across various lines. However, we welcomed 395 cruise ships, an increase of 21 vessels when compared to 2013.
Over the past six months, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. has sought to build on the momentum of its predecessor, so that the transition into the new organisation thus far can be characterised as a continuum.
However, it is by no means business as usual as we are very keen to establish a new marketing philosphy that matches our current digital age. Likewise, our efforts to formulate a winning global team to market brand Barbados continues unabated. In due course, we believe we will have an appropriate mixture of solid experience and new media insights that can carry the organisation strategically toward developing and enhancing our tourism sector for generations to come.
Even in the face of this transition, we are keeping our sights on major targets set before us. Our plans for 2015 are guided by our commitments to diversify our tourism source markets and reduce our vulnerability to shocks in any given region, to reduce the seasonality by adjusting our marketing strategies across booking periods, to deepen strategic partnerships with key travel industry players, to simplify the booking process for potential visitors, and to pursue an integrated marketing approach to ensure the implementation of successful initiatives and lessons learnt across all our source markets.
In addition to our long term goals, we are still rooted in the desire to break down the language barrier in pushing new categories of visitors and providing new tourism products that can attract the next generation traveller. With regards to the latter, we are working closely with our sister entity the Barbados Tourism Product Authority. We are committed to balancing these objectives against our current targets to ensure the sustainability of this vital industry.
We are already seeing the fruits of the decision to shift our tourism marketing strategy into the hands of a company. This new structure allows us to be nimble and to be quick in responding to market shifts and to set new paradigms based on fiscal prudence.
Alvin Jemmott is chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.
