Sunday 22nd  March 2020   -  Barbados.

Tourism Sector Encouraged To Be Creative During Crisis

COVID-19 Update with Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds.

With approximately 24 out of 81 hotels already indicating that they will be closing their doors, tourism players are being encouraged to use the ongoing crisis to become creative.

Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds, made this appeal to tourism stakeholders as he addressed a press conference to update the country on the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought the island’s tourism industry to a standstill.

“I see this as an opportunity for us to use the downtime creatively, and that the Barbados Hotel Tourism Association, the Barbarous Tourism Marketing Incorporated must now look at ways, in which not only do they come back into the marketplace more aggressively and more competently, but equally, how we do so in a more competitive way,” he said.

Mr. Symmonds said this meant that players now needed to use the Tourism Development Act, an existing piece of legislation that has never really been used, as a developmental tool to reinvest in the sector financially, through the training of staff and enhancing the tourism product.

Meanwhile, he noted that some hotels had indicated a willingness to remain open, and urged Barbadians to make a contribution where possible to ensuring that their staff remained employed.

“The reality is that the circumstances have changed a lot in less than a week.  I don’t want to say it is impossible to do a staycation because there are hotels which have indicated definitively … that they will remain open ….  But obviously, we have to do that in a very balanced way, measuring all the risks associated with it ….  I think it would be a question of the extent to which you then participate, and the way in which you participate,” he suggested.

                  

He also noted that it was important to preserve Barbados’ tourist attractions during the crisis, while also getting creative in how restaurants offered their products.

“Let us use, for example, the opportunity to see how best we can … develop take out and home deliveries.  There are a number of restaurants in Barbados which do not now do that,” the Minister said.

He further suggested that persons dislocated from the taxi business may be willing to work in partnership with the restaurant to facilitate the delivery and takeout service.

“I think it is important for us to realize that out of this dark cloud can come a lining of creativity, and … a better way of putting legacy benefits in terms of how we reassess the way in which we do business,” he stated.

Mr. Symmonds stressed that these were the things which needed to be considered in order to find ways of reinvesting into the tourism industry, so it can become more competitive going forward.

However, in outlining the expected closures in the tourism industry, the Minister indicated that it was expected that it would have a “knock on effect” across the island’s economy.

He stressed that it was therefore important to stimulate other types of activity, such as construction and agriculture, as a means of generating economic activity.

julia.rawlins-bentham@barbados.gov.bb

Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds gives an

update on Government’s response to COVID – 19 at Ilaro Court today