THIS MUST BE the last Christmas that thousands of visitors arrive in Barbados to a closed Bridgetown.
Around 10 000 visitors found City shops closed on Christmas Day and in an admonition to the “captains of industry”, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds was adamant this must not happen again.
He told Captain Bart Vaartjes of the cruise ship Zuiderdam, which made an inaugural call at the Bridgetown Port on Monday: “I want this to be the last year, captain, that folks like you come here bringing thousands of people to our shores at Christmas time and the streets of Bridgetown are dead. I think that we all have to understand that tourism is our business and we all must seriously be playing our part.”
The Zuiderdam brought 2 000 passengers on a one-off call of an 11-day Caribbean cruise. After exchanging plaques with the captain, Symmonds declared: “We can’t have five to ten thousand people in the port of Bridgetown on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and Bridgetown is asleep. People must be met with activity. They must be given shopping opportunities.
“A greater effort must be made by the captains of industry in this country to make Barbados the best that it can be, and if we have five or ten thousand people in Bridgetown that we did not otherwise have, then let us open our doors to welcome those visitors and give them an experience that is second to nothing” he added. (GC)
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