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Barbados Tourism Marketing Incorporated (BTMI)
has reported that land tourists broke a 15-year record in the first quarter of
2015 to reach 171,471 long stay arrivals. However, cruise traffic saw a 6
percent decline to 217,139 passengers.
Despite the decline, the BTMI said there was a welcomed increase in homeporting,
which sees ships purchase goods and services from local dairy, retail and other
suppliers. There is also a trend being observed with smaller ships being
replaced by larger vessels.
CEO, William Griffith, revealed that a comprehensive review effort has begun to
ensure that the BTMI’s policies support their new mandate as a private entity.
“I am pleased to say that we have begun the process of updating a number of
critical polices in the areas of human resources, marketing and finance in
keeping with our commitment to increasing employee engagement and productivity;
maximizing our return on marketing investment, and achieving greater levels of
fiscal prudence.”
In line with these changes, a comprehensive marketing plan featuring traditional
and digital marketing programs has also been developed to guide the organization
in resource allocation and monitoring of its various marketing programs.
Griffith broke down the performance by market, which showed that arrivals from
the UK, USA, Canada, and Caribbean and Latin American grew by 12.9 percent, 27.7
percent, 28.4 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively. Germany also grew by 23.6
percent.
These strong performances, including a 17.7 per cent rise in arrivals from other
Caribbean countries, were partially offset by a 2.4 per cent decline in the
Trinidad and Tobago market and the dip in arrivals from other European countries
by 27.3 percent.
Griffith added that the island’s total airlift capacity for the May 1 – October
31, 2015 summer period was set to rise by 3.6 percent, largely driven by
additional flights and the use of larger aircraft by the island’s airline
partners. |
