SHADOW MINISTER for Tourism Santia Bradshaw today rapped Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy for a marketing strategy which she said was seeing competing destinations in the region leaving Barbados “lagging” behind.
Bradshaw expressed concern about American Airlines pulling its direct flight out of Barbados and the island seeking to fill the void with low cost carrier Jet Blue, which she said did not replace the premier business traveller who would not go through Miami from New York to come to Barbados.
At the same time, Bradshaw observed, AA had daily direct flights to Antigua which she pointed out was getting a variety of airlift that Barbados was not.
“By reducing the marketing budget you place Barbados in a situation where our competitors are spending the money and seeing the results of that expenditure,” Bradshaw said during debate in the House of Assembly on the Appropriations Bill to approve Government’s Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the 2014-2015 financial year. (GC)
