I have been working in the tourism industry for 20 years and its heart breaking to see the changes and lack of commitment from persons who are responsible for its growth and development.

In my opinion we need to re-brand BARBADOS and get new perspectives on how to maintain the industry, using the same people who are just there for a paycheck is no longer working for us. can we consider restructuring our approach to how we sell Barbados because what we did in the pass did not work.

Example: we usually host 200 agent in May or June, an event called connect Barbados however when we sit and chat  with some of the agents, they admit that they DO NOT sell BARBADOS, go figure. How are they selected for the trip as it is all complimentary, why bring agents who do not sell Barbados and agents who have been here a million times. It does not make sense.

My other challenge is our niches, Barbados has so much to offer to compare to/with other Caribbean islands. Sports tourism is very big and in my opinion, once we get our infrastructures ( stadium, fields or pastures and courts for netball/basketball) up and running we call do well in sports tourism, as well as wedding and honeymoons, medical tourism.

Tapping into our niches can allow us to remove this idea that tourism is seasonal as we would be able to promote Barbados out of season more specifically in the months of May/June/September/October, by creating festival , special event  or developing the ones that already exist  but lack support and development. 

Thank you for your ear.

Wanda Maynard (Ms.)