EDITORIAL: Factors pushing 2020 visitor arrivals

THERE has always been speculation in tourism circles that big ticket events like the Olympic games and the United States presidential elections tend to affect long-stay visitor arrivals into this country.

To counter this, stepped up marketing in the past has averted any major falloff in arrivals from those happenings.

In 2020, Tokyo in Japan will host the 32nd Summer Games, whereas the United States presidential election is due in November with some heated campaigning expected in the lead up to that poll. As these unfold, we wonder whether the “2020 We Gatherin’” and the anticipated influx of Barbadians will serve in any way to boost visitor arrivals in the event there is a falloff.

In yesterday’s Barbados Advocate, Robert Chase, Marketing Director of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Incorporated (BTMI), was quoted as saying that the We Gatherin’ 2020 has tremendous potential to drive visitor arrivals.

Recalling that arrivals grew at approximately four to five per cent over the last year, Mr. Chase maintained: “We will be looking for an additional four to five per cent out of the the initiative”, which is being mounted by the Government of Barbados.

It is a gesture that stakeholders in Barbados would want to see taking place in the interest of the country’s development and the efforts to ride the economy out of the current storm.

So far in 2019, figures on long-stay arrivals up to September showed a four per cent increase. The United Kingdom market was up nine per cent and the United States 10 per cent. However, except for Germany and Trinidad and Tobago, the data revealed that none of the other source markets for visitors coming into Barbados registered increases in those nine months of the year.

In terms of revenue, the figures show that visitor spend amounted to Bds$1.91 billion in the nine months, up from Bds$1.67 billion a year earlier.

The Olympic games are known to attract a considerable number of spectators. It is one of the world’s most significant sporting events and has its following. While there will be no Usain Bolt to fire up people attending the games, interest will still be high to gauge the emerging stars.

If one looks at what has been taking place in American politics, it would be shown that there is a major campaign for re-election by the US President Donald Trump.

His political survival depends on victory and there are some pundits who have given him a chance in spite of his impeachment by the US House of Representatives. So Americans are really into their politics like never before.

However, it is known that in 2016 when the US presidential elections and Summer Olympics last took place, there was a spike in visitor arrivals to Barbados with the major markets reporting increases. So that having set the stage for the year, it is very unlikely dips in the share of visitors from that market will occur next year.

Important enough are the comments by Mr. Chase, who cautioned that they in the BTMI do not want to see a case where Barbadians returning home for the events crowd out regular visitors, but rather see a substitution or cannibalisation of the regular travellers.

That would not be in the interest of Barbados. However, the situation is worth following.