RECOVERY DEPENDENT ON CONTROLLING COVID

GOVERNMENT’S senior economic advisor Dr. Kevin Greenidge, says that once things remain on track, by year-end tourist arrivals into this country are expected to be approximately 40 percent of pre-COVID levels.
Greenidge noted that in 2020 there was a total decimation of the tourism sector, with us losing around 90 percent of arrivals, but he said the sector has been clawing its way back. Comparing arrivals in 2020 with those for 2021, the economic advisor noted that there were approximately four to five times more visitors arriving in the country, and the expectation is that this uptick in numbers will continue.
“That means we will see some positive growth in the economy, some pickup, but again, it all depends, and we have said it from the beginning, on how we handle COVID... because tourism and any other financial service, everything, they are all interlinked,” he said.
Greenidge said while they are anticipating increases in arrivals and eco- nomic growth, the Government is still not where it wants to be. To get there, he said, will depend heavily on how the country contains the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but he is confident that the country can meet its goal. He made the point while noting that the Government has been seeking to and will have to continue to diversify the economy. In that respect, he spoke of efforts to diversify the tourism in- dustry with the introduction of the Barbados Welcome Stamp, which sought to attract long term visitors to the island for up to a year to live and work remotely from these shores. He noted however that pursuing new niche markets takes time and can be difficult when trying to recover from “such a large shock”.
“The Prime Minister gave a speech at the BCCI luncheon, in which she spoke of a number of areas which were trying to diversify in terms of the new digital economy... diversify and invest in nutrition, food and energy, alternative and cleaner energy sources,” he added.
His comments came as he said that a real fast growing economy is not led by government, but the private sector, and he is suggesting that the private sector needs to be more active, invest more and go beyond the traditional thinking about new products and new markets.
“We need to shift our paradigm and our thinking where we are saying we need more entrepreneurship, more private sector businesses coming on board, investing in the economy, retooling, looking for other products, looking beyond Barbados’ to a wider mar- ket, etc.,” he stated.
His comments came on the radio call-in programme Down to Brass Tacks yesterday morning, during which he gave an overview of the Barbados economy at this time.