More to B’dos than sun, sea and sand

Barbados is more than just sun, sea and sand and, by hosting the Sugar and Rum Festival, the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA) hopes to open the eyes of tourists and locals to the many things this country has to offer.

Word of this comes from Terry Vanderpool-Fox, Manager in Innovation and Strategy at the BTPA, during an interview with The Barbados Advocate on the sidelines of the Sugar and Rum Festival Season Finale, which took place at The Gate, The Belle, St. Michael yesterday afternoon.

“This is one of our strategic objectives in terms of differentiating Barbados and diversifying the product and trying to move away from the sun, sea and sand. So it’s more of a cultural heritage product in itself, it’s not just for visitors, it is also for locals,” she said.

“It’s about teaching them a lot of our history, the legacy, who we are as a people, how sugar and rum shaped and really impacted Barbados from the time we were ‘found’. But we’re also telling the story of the authenticity of rum and showing that Barbados is also the home of rum.”

She revealed that the festival is also educational as it exposes Barbadians to their history.

“A lot of people didn’t know that cocoa grew in a lot of our gullies and they are surprised with all of the chocolate making going on now, but in the 1840s, chocolate was grown and sold here and we all enjoyed it,” she said.

“So it’s about creating that opportunity to reacquaint Barbadians with a lot of what is our culinary culture, our cultural heritage and bringing out a lot of our tangible and intangible assets and showcasing them so that we not only become proud Barbadians, but we’re also familiar with our history.”

She expressed that this also gave visitors, especially the repeat visitors, the opportunity to engage in other activities as introduce foreign exchange to the local economy.

Vanderpool-Fox added that in addition to trying to broaden the scope of visitors and locals, they also use the festival to give some of the young entrepreneurs exposure.

“It is also about bringing along all of our small entrepreneurs, all of our youth, and giving them an opportunity and creating the environment to tap into what we call the visitors’ economy,” she said.