Caribbean Today News

Barbados Targeting New Tourism Source Markets

Barbados’ mission is to continuously evolve its tourism product, and the Ministry of Tourism, through the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), has been diligently marketing the island’s product outside of its regular source markets.

Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill, provided information about the marketing efforts of the BTMI, this morning, when he delivered a comprehensive overview of this country’s tourism product offerings, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Mr. Gooding-Edghill noted that Barbados has been engaging with Latin American and the Gulf States. “We are confident in our strategy; we are confident in our approach that Barbados will continue to go after strategic markets, in addition to protecting the markets that we’ve had. 

“If you know about the history of Barbados, we’ve always relied predominantly on the UK, Europe, Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean, but if you want to build out and continue to expand your base, you have to look beyond those markets.  We will continue to protect those markets because they’ve been good to us, but we will then endeavour to bring additional visitors to Barbados,” he said.

The Minister disclosed that in an effort to further deepen this country’s relationship with the Latin American market, it would be opening an office in Panama City.

“I’m delighted to tell you that … within about two to three months, maximum, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. will be opening an office in Panama, which would be our Latin American and Caribbean region.  We see that as a significant growth area.  When I took the job, that was one of the first policy decisions that I took that we’re going into the Latin American and Caribbean market in the most fundamental way,” the Tourism Minister stated.

He added that as a result, the Ministry was in discussions with Copa Airlines to expand its services by July.  The airline currently has two flights weekly from Panama to Barbados.

“The strategy being behind that as well is that we need to get into Latin America in a fundamental way.  The office will be fully staffed; we will have a marketing director; we will also have individuals who would work out of Brazil, and we will also serve the greater part of Latin America.  So, we will have a fully staffed office in Panama, with reach into Latin America, and then we will also tactically have some person on the ground in São Paulo, Brazil, to help us build out,” Minister Gooding-Edghill explained.

Other key highlights were: