Sealy: Tourism sector has come a long way

From 37 000 visitors in the 1960s to a record number of over 600 000 in 2016, Barbados’ tourism sector has come a long way.

 

Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy made this observation in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, in his contribution to the Resolution – Congratulating Barbados on the Attainment of its 50th Anniversary of Independence.

 

“Even from the cruise industry, close to 750 000 cruisers, many of them home porters. So we have come a long way from when we first started, when we spoke of 37 000 visitors in the 1960s.”

 

Sealy also recalled that as far back as the 1930s, tourism was identified as useful to Barbados. He said although sugar was still “king” of the island, it was thought that tourism would be a good way to earn foreign exchange to buy the parts for the machinery in the sugar factories.

 

“Tourism was about supporting ‘King Sugar’,” he pointed out.

 

“In the 1930s when the Barbados Publicity Committee was formed, you would have had about 10 000 visitors coming to Barbados. The stated objective of that Committee was to make known abroad the advantages of Barbados… Don’t let us ignore the fact that it laid the base as the Publicity Committee would have given way to the Board of Tourism, which gave way to the Barbados Tourism Authority, which has now given way to Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.”

 

According to Sealy, the modernisation of the entire sector is something that Barbadians should be thankful for. He told the House that the country was blessed to have a Father of Independence  who was a pilot and appreciated where the aviation industry was going.

 

“When a lot of people thought that his vision was a little too large – for example, the Seawell Plantation and building a huge airport structure, we heard all the talk about wastage, etc  – now we understand why because that was a fundamental component to building a modern tourism industry. There are still some of our neighbours who don’t have capacity to land large aircraft. 

 

“We have to be thankful that our stalwarts were able to recognise back then that there was something that we had offer in terms of tourism,” Sealy added. (TL)