Dear Sir/Madam,

In light of the information provided regarding our economic situation with special emphasis on our tourism product and foreign exchange situation we are hereby proposing an indigenous sporting activity, which can improve our tourism product and improve our foreign exchange situation. 

The sporting activity to which we refer is Road Tennis. This sporting activing has a forty plus year history here in Barbados and in recent years seen an increasing number of Barbadians playing road tennis. There are a number of well-intentioned Barbadians who have been developing and promoting the sport locally, regionally and in some instances internationally. Some persons are keen to take Road tennis to the world, while others are comfortable keeping it in its initial “back street” beginnings.

What we are proposing is bringing the world to Barbados to participate in Road tennis. There are a number of things, which have to be done in order to realize economic gain. Firstly there is need for a SMAART World Road Tennis Association to be established. This association will be stationed in Barbados and will be responsible for establishing rules and regulations that will be in line with international standards.

 Secondly the establishment of a SMAART Barbados Road Tennis Association which will be responsible for bringing the stake holders ( Players, Promoters, sponsors and spectators) together to facilitate development and eventually international recognition of the sport. There will be a need to construct a state of the art road tennis facility, which meet international standards to host road tennis competitions.

 Government can act as a facilitator in this area as appose to totally owning the facility. There will be a need to have two or three other indoor facilities to accommodate the domestic side of the sport. The main facility will be mainly to host international road tennis games where the patrons will be 75 to 80% visitors. All world and international competitions will be staged in Barbados. A number of Barbadians will be train as coaches and must acquire international certification. These coaches can be exported to the world to prepare players to meet the standard to compete in Barbados. The world body would be responsible for the facilitating of this process while the BRTA will take care of the domestic side. The world body will be responsible for bringing the world to the table to ensure that world and international tournaments become permanent fixtures at the main facility. The BRTA will ensure that the standard of the local players are continuously at an international level.

Barbados will own all the media rights thus enjoying the economic rewards of having the sport viewed by the world. Since Barbados would be the hub for all world and international matches along with the fact that the main facility will be catering to mainly visitors our tourism product as well as our foreign exchange situation can be handsomely improved.

We are currently involved in this sport as one of the many promoters. In order for the sport to realize its true potential there have to be serious governmental support. We do hope that this proposal will spark interest and facilitate the hosting of world and international Road Tennis Tournaments here in Barbados. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our vision for road tennis as a means to improve our tourism product as well as improve our foreign exchange situation with you.

Yours Truly,

   Donald Grazette                                     Cathy Ann Roach-Grazette