BY SHEENA FORDE-CRAIGG – JAN 16, 2023
Barbados’ 2022/23 Winter season is being described as “trending upward positively”.
Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill, made the observation last Saturday, during a press briefing at the Ministry, One Barbados Place, Warrens, St. Michael.
Stressing that the sector was still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister Gooding-Edghill stated: “From all data and information, I’m happy to say that we are experiencing an upward trend in the momentum for this winter season. This is demonstrated by my personal interaction with several tourism partners in retail, accommodation, wholesale and suppliers, attractions, transportation, [and] water sports operators ….”
He shared statistics from 2018 to the end of December 2022 on passenger arrivals at both ports of entry – Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) and The Port of Bridgetown.
Mr. Gooding-Edghill noted that some major highlights to date are the arrival of over 3,000 passengers on more than 15 flights; over 9,000 visitors at the Port of Bridgetown on December 29, 2022, and some inaugural cruise dockings, including the Ritz Carlton luxury yacht, Evrima, last November.
With regard to arrivals at the GAIA, one of the island’s leading source markets, the United Kingdom, was used as a benchmark. Visitors statistics recorded for December 2018 were 26,265; in December 2019, 24,994, and December 2022, 26,080. “We’re doing well. We want to do better. This is not about telling you that we’re doing exceptionally well, but we are in a period of recovery,” the Minister stated.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Francine Blackman, noted that part of the Ministry’s strategy to increase arrivals via airlift involves building out the recently passed Civil Aviation Authority legislation that would lead to signing new air services agreements.
“We recognise in the Ministry, it (strategy) has to be twofold. While we work on tourism, it is necessary for us to also work on our aviation side of the business because aviation informs tourism and vice versa….
“Some of the recent air services agreements that we signed last year were with the Government of Qatar.… We also upgraded an air services agreement with the Government of the United Arab Emirates. We also recently, just last year, signed an air services agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and these are to help us now go into other emerging markets,” Ms. Blackman stated.
As it relates to cruise figures, it was revealed that in December 2018, Barbados welcomed 43 ships, and had 78 calls with 29,138 disembarking passengers. In December 2019, there were 40 ships, 78 calls and 29,435 disembarking passengers; in December 2021, 35 ships made 70 calls with 16,452 disembarking passengers, and in December 2022, 41 ships visited and there were 70 calls and 29,552 disembarking passengers.
Cruise 2022/2023 season should see 21 vessels homeporting in Barbados with a total of 183 home porting calls.
Minister Gooding-Edghill disclosed: “We anticipate that arrivals should be in the vicinity of 698,512, and when we compare those numbers to what we would have accomplished in 2019, we would have seen a 10 per cent increase.”
The information provided came from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Barbados Port Inc. (BPI), David Jean-Marie; GAIA’s CEO, Hadley Bourne; CEO (Ag.) of Caribbean Aircraft Handling, Lemuel Padmore; Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI)’s CEO, Dr. Jens Thraenhart, and Chairman of the BTMI Board, Shelly Williams.
