The Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) has less than a decade to come up with firm plans concerning the future of the island’s tourism product.
Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins issued the challenge while delivering the feature address at the BTMI’s inaugural Visit Barbados Industry Forum yesterday at Hilton Barbados.
“The BTMI has been given the mandate to build a global strategy for the expansion of Barbados’ tourism product. While we have had the UK (United Kingdom) as our lead market and the US (United States) as our secondary market, what is your high-level vision for where we go next?
“We cannot maintain the status quo forever. Every country that has moved forward has been able to invest in transformation, in change. They had grown uncomfortable with where they were and we have to be uncomfortable with where we are, with what we have and with what we see. We have . . . to plan a strategy which takes us global in the shortest possible time,” she said.
Cummins added that the BTMI has therefore been asked, by 2025, “to give us a footprint of where we need to be and by 2030 to give us a further footprint of where we need to go”. (CA)
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