THERE ARE THOUSANDS of visitors on island this week, some for cricket, others for other leisure activity, and still more who may be spending only a limited time on a cruise visit.
We welcome them all, are overjoyed to have them here, and want them to come again and bring someone else with them.
However, there are some issues related to our tourism that we need to address.
With the influx of visitors, our tourism planners need to look at the impact this is having on the environment and say whether we are actively looking at meeting an increased demand for water, and how we are doing at collecting and disposing of garbage on a consistent basis.
The public would be very interested in how many of our hotel properties meet green efficiency standards, and are doing things such as harvesting and recycling of water, and also using alternative sources of energy – wind or solar.
There is a lot of excitement about the rise in visitor arrivals, but for the average Barbadian the concern is whether there has been an increase in jobs and even better pay across the sector.
Hopefully, the receipts will highlight the economic benefits from the tremendous increase in visitor arrivals. The public can get a clear picture by the end of April and show that tax avoidance is not an endemic and widespread problem.
