THE BARBADOS TOURISM PRODUCT AUTHORITY (BTPA) will not be cleaning up the island today only for Barbadians to dirty it tomorrow.
This is the declaration from chief executive officer Dr Kerry Hall, who said it was important the island be made spick and span in the 50th anniversary of its Independence.
So along with the clean-up, the BTPA will be launching an awareness campaign to tug at the heartstrings of Barbadians and break them out of their dirty littering habits.
Hall made the comments as she spoke at the launch of Tourism Week earlier this week.
“We maintain if we can’t clean our nation this year, I don’t know when we will be able to clean. It is very important we get this done in the 50th year and we are not just seeking to clean a beach or reef or a gully today for Barbadians to dirty it back up tomorrow,” she said.
Creative programmes
“We are seeking to come up with a three-pronged effort where we sensitise and come up with creative programmes and initiatives, and an awareness campaign that would touch the heartstrings of the Barbadian people in a way that would resonate with them [to] bring about the necessary behavioural change where the indiscriminate littering that is taking place on the island would stop,” Hall said, noting the aim was to return to the days when Barbadians were a very proud, clean and neat people.
She explained the BTPA was partnering and facilitating the efforts of a number of non-governmental organisations, like the Future Centre Trust and the Barbados chapter of the Caribbean Youth Environment Network, because “we could not do it alone”.
“If we pool those resources and pool those efforts, we would make real change,” she said.
She added one of the pillars of the island’s marketing campaign was its cleanliness, in addition to its security and the friendliness of its people.
The CEO stressed that if the island was “not at the state it should be in terms of cleanliness, we need to get involved”.
However, she said the BTPA, through its Clean Bim Programme, was not just cleaning the island for its visitors.
“We are acting as facilitators. We don’t want it to come across that we are just cleaning the country for tourists even though if we invite people here – and we are a tourism-dependent country – we’re the 13th most dependent country on tourism in the world in the tourism industry – we should have a clean nation.
“When our nation is dirty, it sends the wrong signal. It doesn’t tell people who we are.” (HLH)
