Rose-Ann Myers, President of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) as she gave her remarks during the EU-Barbados Trade Forum, that was held at the Radisson Aquatica yesterday morning.
Carlos Wharton (left), Director of Barbados Chamber of Commerce Industry; Ambassador Gail Mathurin; Director General of the CARICOM Office of Trade Negotiations; and H.E. Errol Humphrey, Past Head of the EPA Implementation, during the EU-Barbados Trade Forum.
Myers: Not all doom and gloom
The reality of Brexit is not as glum as many people predicted it would have been since its genesis in June 2016.
This comment was made by Rose-Ann Myers, President of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) during the EU-Barbados Trade Forum that was held at the Radisson Aquatica yesterday morning. More specifically, her remarks focussed on the implications of Brexit on the Tourism sector and the BHTA.
Myers pointed out that the massive cancellation of holidays that persons suspected would have happened did not.
She explained that this was due to the fact that many tourists had already made their bookings and paid for their vacation in one of the major booking seasons which was January. She added that while the Brexit vote was happening, the major airlines put out a major seat sale which allowed for the industry to piggyback off of the sale since persons did not pass up the good sale opportunity.
Despite this, Myers said that the booking pace did slow down a bit which caused a little bit of uncertainty but not enough for them to be completely worried. She mentioned that last year after Brexit was triggered, there was a slight decline for a few months in the number of people arriving. However, she revealed that at the end of 2016 there was a 2.1 per cent increase in these arrivals. She noted that even though there was a rise in the number of arrivals, there was still a
significant decrease in revenue.
“I want to again make the very clear point that numbers do not necessarily equate to revenue,” he said.
She said when looking at revenue, the two things should be viewed separately. If anything, she said that the drop in revenue revealed that Barbados heavily depended on the UK visitors. She divulged that research revealed that even though persons are coming to the island, the majority of them do not contribute to the economy as many of them are coming to stay with friends or at places that are significantly more affordable. Myers said that at the end of the day the numbers may have increased but the revenue did not.