Put country first!

Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Roseann Myers, contends that there must be a patriotic approach to problem solving, putting the country before anything and anyone else.

 

Delivering the Chairman’s report at yesterday’s fourth quarterly general meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Myers, as she listed a number of areas in which the country has fallen down and situations that could have been better handled, insisted that Barbados can do better and must do better.

 

“Very fresh are these fantastic memories of people lining the streets to give Barbados a big hug, but also fresh are the memories of the realities that we are facing and must address, of an ageing and deteriorating infrastructure. It is as though the real test of independence and self determination is now going to be sat. Our roads, the drainage system, the sewage system, our water supply systems, and our airport all seem to be nearing the brink of their maximum carrying capacity,” she lamented.

 

The BHTA chairman added that these are issues which require strategic medium and long-term responses, direct capital injection and robust preventative maintenance plans. And, referring to the drought the country has been enduring for months, she noted that the recent heavy rains created another challenge for the country, from which we are still trying to recover our balance and reputation.  

 

With that in mind, she said it is imperative that as an industry they understand the protocols required for businesses and households in such situations, know who is responsible for responding and ensure the plan and resources to do so are available. 

 

“We have had some members without water for more days and weeks that we would care to think about. Though in the minority, it only takes one guest to make a negative statement to affect the business you thought you had secure on your books.  The truth is that what would be worse than what has happened here over the past month is that we should have another downpour any time soon and suffer a repeat of the same challenges. We still have no clarity on what we collectively need to do before, during and after such events,” she said.

 

Myers added, “We have shot ourselves in one foot with the infrastructural challenges, and truthfully we have shot ourselves in the other foot with the somewhat slow response and communication of what was being done to address the fallout and to communicate with one voice about a confluence of circumstances… brought upon us.”

 

She made the point as she suggested that one of the biggest challenges facing this nation is the lack of communication. The BHTA official lamented that agencies are not communicating effectively to solve issues and are not communicating with their various publics when problems occur. 

 

Instead, she suggested, they need to want to ignore and deny before addressing the concerns frontally.

 

“We had issues with drainage, and backed up systems that affected the sewage system which was already stressed.  Rather than acknowledge and take control of the message, we allowed the general public to tell their stories on Facebook and social media in an uncontrolled way with no one providing the leadership required to investigate, address, apologise, warn and manage the possible resolution, and we waited until the damage was done to our good name, then to try to respond. We have to do better and surely I believe we can do better,” she maintained.

 

The BHTA chairman added, “Every agency wants to blame the other and so far one thing is for sure there are absolutely no winners…  Through continued constructive dialogue we must try at all costs not to sabotage the Barbados economy that continues to grow against all odds.”

 

On that note, she referred to the recent breakdown in talks between the National Union of Public Workers and the Grantley Adams International Airport which resulted in a slowdown at that port of entry, and called for the Government and Union to return to the table and stay at the table with a conviction to bring the impasses affecting the efficient operation of the airport to a end. 

 

“We are all losers if we allow this situation to continue. I feel sometimes in my simplistic mind that we should lock the requisite parties in a room and do not let them come out, because through dialogue is the only way that we can solve the problem and through negotiation,” she maintained. (JRT)