Housing the National Art Gallery at the Garrison, St Michael, could help Barbados capture far more of the money cruise passengers bring ashore, Minister of Energy, Business Development and Commerce Kerrie Symmonds told the House of Assembly yesterday.
Speaking during debate on a resolution to vest land at the Garrison for the gallery project, he suggested the facility should be seen as an economic and tourism asset, not just a repository for paintings.
Symmonds pointed to the Garrison’s UNESCO World Heritage Site designation, saying the country had a duty to develop the area.
“We have a UNESCO World Heritage Site that must be fleshed out,” he said, adding that a gallery beside the Barbados Museum, George Washington House and St Ann’s Fort would create “a wealth of heritage experience, second to none”.
Spend
His argument centred on cruise tourism. With Barbados the only southern Caribbean destination with homeporting capacity, he said ships would again stay from Thursday or Friday until Sunday this winter, with the first arrivals due on October 15. Yet the numbers disappoint, he added.
The minister said he was proud of the port infrastructure but troubled by the data. “The [Bridgetown] Port is one of the worstperforming in terms of the spend,” he said, asking why the country was not getting visitors to spend more.
He said the shortfall reflects a thin product rather than a marketing problem. Even the best advertising fails, he pointed out, if visitors arrive to find “all you got is an empty shelf”.
The St James Central Member of Parliament said the gallery could anchor a richer visitor circuit. Passengers strolling from the port through Bridgetown could be drawn to the Garrison, where they might also explore the historic tunnels under the Savannah, which he called an experience “unlike any that I have seen in the Caribbean”.
He proposed a dedicated shuttle running between Bridgetown and the Garrison, and suggested the ministers responsible for transport and tourism could agree on one.
Experiences
He also said the money spent attracting visitors should go towards experiences that let them “immerse themselves in that which is truly Barbadian” and leave “feeling enriched” so that they recommend the island to others.
Symmonds said the gallery’s value would extend beyond visitors. Fashion, design and other creative work carry intellectual property value, he noted, adding that a designer had made the point at the previous evening’s Ideas Forum, and he raised the absence of a national dress.
He also linked the gallery to the 2007 CARIFORUM-European Union (EU) Economic Partnership Agreement.
He said the agreement gave Barbadian artists and cultural practitioners duty-free access to sell their work and services in EU states, but that its benefits have not been fully realised.
Talent
“The door cannot be treated as closed,” he said, urging continued engagement with Europe. Barbados’ modern copyright legislation, he added, gave creators a way to protect their economic interests.
“Talent has value,” he said. “Skill has value.”
Symmonds said that when tourists step off cruise ships, the country’s task is to give them something worth paying for. “Not developed, exploited,” he said, of the island’s untapped tourism product.
He told the House Barbados was “literally pregnant with potential” and could not remain undecided about how to use its heritage designation. (BA)