BARBADOS IS HOPING to increase visitor arrivals from continental Europe and Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy is leading the effort.
He said yesterday from London shortly before going over to France that he had been talking with a number of the leading players in the tourism and travel sectors.
While in Paris he plans to meet with Air France, as well as Excel Airways Europe, as he hopes to get something going from France.
He said this was “all part of getting more business from Europe”.
Sealy’s efforts come as Germany has plans to implement, from December 1, an airline ticket tax of 45 Euros, similar to the British air passenger duty (APD), which is expected to make travel to Barbados and other Caribbean destinations more expensive.
“Now in terms of Barbados we don’t get a whole lot of Germans coming out here . . . . We have the Condor flight which comes in once a week. It will not have a huge impact on our overall arrivals; however in terms of the strategy that we have employed trying to get more continental Europeans to come to Barbados it would definitely have an impact,” he said.
He pointed to Germany’s economic leadership within Europe and why it should be the country from which Barbados should get more visitors. In its thrust to attract more European tourists the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) has separated Europe from continental Europe and appointed a vice president to drive more business here.
Of the new tax, Sealy noted: “This situation is one that could potentially impact that effort . . . . We are not daunted and will continue working on it.”
Barbados gets most of its business out of the Britain with only a fraction from German; but Sealy warned that other European countries were looking at this duty and all this would impact overall overall tourism strategy. (ES)
