We presently have about 30 catamarans, 10 charter fishing boats and a Jolly Roger operating our local waters these bring in a lot of added FX yet the facilities for these boats to dock at is substandard. The Shallow Draft could be made into a nice marina of international standards. These catamarans also suffer greatly as there is a lack of snorkeling attractions, everyone goes to see the turtles but where needs improvement is artificial reefs hence my point ending the above paragraph. Using works created by local artists carefully submerged so as not to do any damage to existing coral reefs would create marine parks for both shallow and deep water diving. Carlisle Bay Marine Park is good but it lacks space so at peak season it’s madness in there and becomes an operators nightmare this idea is twofold as we need to help out our environment which has been neglected for too long. I am quite sure that once a reasonable idea is put to the operators of the various companies that would benefit from this initiative they would be willing to help both financially and physically.

Yacht tourism is also a huge market you could capitalize on, the days of the cheap seafarer are coming to an end. So many people have nice boats and want a decent safe place to keep them. Barbados is far enough south that it avoids most storms plus its the first landfall coming across the Atlantic yet we continue to ignore this potential million dollar industry. I speak from experience as this is my livelihood. Antigua started some 20 years ago a racing week (lasting 5 days) which has grown and now lasts over a month attracting yachts of all sizes and types from all over the world, I strongly urge you to look at this market as it employs a host of people in many different forms from the customs agents to the service providers to bars, restaurants and tourist attractions.

By Bruce Slater