Taxi operators at the Bridgetown Port must be given a slice of the tour pie.
This was the directive issued to the Royal Caribbean Cruise line today in a hastily-convened telephone meeting between the cruise line and top Barbados tourism and Port officials.
The anger of several taxi operators who assembled at the Port of Bridgetown from early this morning, was provoked by the sight of tour buses owned by larger operators ferrying passengers from one ship docked there while the taxi operators were forced to look on with no business coming their way.
A spokesman for the Barbados Port Taxi Association told Nation News the group had learnt that passengers were restricted to pre-booked tours offered by the ship, while other passengers were not being allowed to leave the ship to take independent taxis in the port.
However, following strong representation made to the cruise line by Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins and Minister of Maritime Affairs Kirk Humphrey an agreement was reached that Humphrey later told the taxi operators would permit them to do business with individual passengers “with immediate effect”. (GC)
