ALTHOUGH the membership of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) is working hard to help this country solve its economic problems, tourism alone just cannot do it.

That’s the view of Rudy Grant, CEO of the BHTA; and Chairman Roseanne Myers.

They told a news conference yesterday that because of the magnitude of the problems facing the country, the tourism sector cannot singly pull the country out of its troubles.

“What I will say is that tourism does have an important role to play, in that it is a leading earner of foreign exchange,” Grant said. But tourism “on its own will not be able to provide the level of growth that is necessary,” he remarked.
Saying there has to be a level of collaboration, Grant stated that when they refer to tourism, it is not only about visitor arrivals.

“The reality is that the industry touches on other important areas in the economy, whether we are talking health, transportation and so on,” he maintained.

“So when we speak about tourism and enhancing it we have to ensure there are the linkages with other sectors. From the perspective of the BHTA we will be playing our part through the collaboration with agriculture, creating more a competitive environment, and with other sectors in the economy as well,” he said.

In endorsing Grant's comments, Ms. Myers said that there is no question the industry can do better and especially with the marketing efforts.

She added that there is need to take into consideration planning for the short, medium and long term.

“But the earning of the foreign exchange is not going to help the country with its debt,” she stressed. The issue that Barbados has to deal with right now is with the high fiscal deficit, driven by the debt that was increased over the years and which the country is now trying to sort out in repaying that debt, she noted.

“So you need some economic policies to address that,” the BHTA Chairman explained.