AFTER MORE THAN 50 years in the tourism industry, Barbados’ economy and its overall commercial business environment are littered with large and small firms taking full advantage of opportunities providing by tourism, right?
Wrong! If the nation’s Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy, who also heads the Ministry of International Transport in the Freundel Stuart administration, is right on the money, tourism may offer the country and its workforce employment that could usher in an era of almost “full employment”.
“Tourism must continue to be the driver of the Barbadian economy going forward,” he replied when asked about his vision for the vital sector. “In doing so, it can, through linkages with other sectors, create employment for as many Barbadians as possible. We actually believe that regular investment in the accommodation sector and the continued growth we are seeing in airlift into Barbados, through direct employment, through induced and indirect employment, the services, the downstream industries of tourism we could see ourselves close to full employment. That is within reach. Ultimately, that is what we have to visualise as far as tourism is concerned.”
The airlift to which Sealy referred received a shot in the arm last month when JetBlue introduced a scheduled weekly service out of Newark, New Jersey’s largest urban centre, into Barbados, and Sealy was at the Grantley Adams International Airport to welcome it.
But attaining full employment may be a far off for a country that has struggled with anemic economic growth at a time when it is dealing with a mountain of debt that’s more than 100 per cent of its gross domestic product.
The challenges don’t end there. Barbados is grappling with a fiscal deficit which shows few, if any, signs of narrowing to an acceptable level any time soon. It also faces the real possibility of yet another downgrading of its Wall Street credit rating that would force it deeper into junk bond territory.
Should Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s, two of the world’s leading credit rating firms take that damaging step, the island may have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for relief that is bound to inflict pain on the pocketbooks of people.
The woes don’t end there. With more and more questions being asked about the island’s ability to maintain its currency exchange rate of 50 cents for each United States dollar, a peg which has been in place since the 1970s, devaluation may be inevitable.
Little wonder then, that tourism, already a major pillar of the economy, is being cast, along with international financial services, as a saviour from the dreaded tumble in the value of the currency.
Sealy, who has headed the tourism ministry since 2008, doesn’t view the economic picture through a lens of despair.
Far from it. For instance, he thinks there are “greater levels of self-employment” in the industry that can and must be exploited.
“There are entrepreneurial opportunities than can develop from tourism,” insisted the minister. “In fact, we have to be honest with ourselves. It is an area that maybe the Government needs to focus on a bit more. I say Government in a general sense because we have been in the tourism business for 50 years. Governments have come and gone and the question is to what extent have we seen entrepreneurs spawned with a focus on tourism?”
Answer: not nearly enough. That raises the question: why aren’t more people attracted to an industry that is a breadbasket for the labour force? The minister thinks the answer lies in the tradition of buying and selling that is the foundation of commerce in the country.
“It is a traditional thing and if I have to be fair, it is not only entrepreneurs. We have big businesses, captains of industry who, for whatever reason are not always comfortable investing in tourism,” he asserted. “People seem to be way more comfortable importing, distributing and engaging in retail than turning to tourism. They seem willing to sit down with a bank manager and borrow money to establish businesses like that. People who have done well have not always been willing to invest in tourism as they should.”
He sees a major challenge: raising the level of tourism awareness and stirring more enthusiasm for a sector that already employs thousands.
“Many of the people who are in tourism bring a great deal personal passion to it and that has to do presumably with the fact that for whatever reason people again don’t see it as a legitimate industry, even though tourism is a vital sector of our economy and they say we are tourism dependent. People still tolerate it. That is one of the realities.”
Hence, the herculean effort of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority to boost awareness through the “host” programme; a school’s initiative; and other activities. Then there is the far-reaching positive response of the Caribbean Examinations Council to have tourism studies in the schools’ curriculum. All are very important.
“There is an ongoing exercise of education and explanation, sharing of information that is required for tourism,” Sealy said.
A major impediment is the aversion to risk-taking that pervades Barbados’ businesses environment.
“That is something we inherited historically and for that reason those persons who are risk-takers would look for what they term to be low-risk. It is a fact that tourism is viewed as something that’s risky,” he said. “We have done a lot to reduce the whole seasonality” of the industry.
“Right now,” he contends, “the summer period is just as busy as the winter period in most instances. We are trying to shorten the shoulders [of seasonality] as much as possible.”
But he was quick to acknowledge that narrowing the gap between the lucrative winter season and the “off” period was a legitimate issue that the ministry and the tourism agencies as well as the industry as a whole were addressing with a measure of success.
“That element will always be an issue and we recognise that,” said Sealy. “Barbadians tend to be more conservative.”
Perhaps, it may be a case of conservatism which served Barbados well in the past retarding progress in the 21st century.
