Increased occupancy reported

Local hotels have been reporting good occupancies in the lead up to the winter tourist season.

 

Outgoing Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Sue Springer, said the hotels recorded good occupancies for the month of November, and she noted that many hotels were full, particularly during the week of the country’s 50th Anniversary of Independence.

 

Speaking at the BHTA’s final quarterly meeting for the year held recently at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Springer further noted that long-stay arrivals for the month of October showed an increase of 3.9 per cent with a year to date increase of 5.6 per cent. Referring specifically to the country’s major source markets, she revealed that arrivals from the United States were up 11.5 per cent, United Kingdom (UK) was up 2.2 per cent, Trinidad and Tobago up 16.2 per cent; other Central and South America saw an increase of 27.7 per cent due primarily to the new flight out of Bogota, while Canada remained flat.

 

In respect of the UK, Springer noted that the rate of exchange for the pound sterling is beginning to have its effect. She told those gathered that UK visitors are cutting back on tours and the money they are spending. 

 

“This may not have such an effect as we enter the winter season, we may have a different demographic, but we certainly have seen it through the period of June to October… The major selling period for tour operators as we all know will be after Christmas, in fact some of them are starting Christmas Day. So from Boxing Day through to the end of January, I think that will be a telling time for the tour operators as to where we really are as we move forward to 2017,” she stated.

 

Meanwhile, the outgoing CEO said there has been “incredible airlift” out of nearly all of the major markets for winter, and she has congratulated the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and the Ministry of Tourism on this achievement. She noted that JetBlue is adding an additional service from Boston which began on December 4 as well as a new flight from Newark from November 19 and to January 7.

 

“Air Canada Rouge will bring three weekly services; West Jet is upgrading their equipment; British Airways will bring 13 flights a week and actually Christmas week there will be 14 flights. There is a flight from Munich with Condor and two flights from Frankfurt, and very exciting as announced by Anita Nightingale, Air France will be flying from February, from Paris to Martinique with connections onto Barbados,” she said.

 

In respect of cruise arrivals, she said globally, growth in the cruise ship industry continues with 27 000 new berths added in 2016 alone, and next four years it is expected to see US$30 billion in new cruise ships launched totalling 125 000 new berths. With that in mind, she said the Caribbean represents 38.4 per cent of the global market, adding that the Barbados cruise brand continues to be strong, with cruise visitor numbers continuing to trend upwards. 

 

She said 14 ships will make inaugural calls to Barbados this winter, which is a record for the island. She made the point while noting that the local homeporting business has continued to do well. In fact, she told those gathered that the cruise business is in keeping with last year’s figures. (JRT)