Richard Gardiner was honoured for visiting the island 100 times.
LOYAL visitors to our shores have once again been thanked for selecting Barbados as their home away from home.
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart welcomed the specially invited guests into his official residence at Ilaro Court, during the second of four receptions being held to thank the repeat visitors to the island, one of whom boasts of visiting the island 100 times.
The Prime Minister told the large gathering that they would not have been able to enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the island, if successive governments did not take a conscious decision to invest in the people of Barbados and the physical environment which they enjoy.
The Prime Minister said that by making the island a congenial place for Barbadians first, essentially created a “superhighway to ensure that all those who visit Barbados would find the environment and people equally congenial and that would explain why they would want to come again”.
He noted that all of this comes against the backdrop of very challenging times across the western world.
“…But when you live in challenging times you have to be able to carve out for yourself some little oasis for your personal enjoyment and for the enjoyment for other friends and love ones. Barbados provides that little oasis to which you can repair when life gets a little difficult wherever you may reside.”
Noting that Barbados was once a sugar economy, Prime Minister Stuart explained that a reliance on sugar became more risky, hence the transition into a tourist industry. “Today tourism is the lead sector in the economy of Barbados. When we became independent in 1966 we were producing around 175 000 tonnes of sugar still.” He revealed that one year after, the country produced 204 000 of sugar.
“Today, as evidence of the grand transition we’ve made from sugar to tourism, we struggle nowadays to produce even 15 000 [tonnes]. That should give you some idea of how important you have become to us in terms of your visiting this country and enjoying the warmth and hospitality of our people,” he said.
The PM also used the opportunity to highlight the work of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority and the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc to ensure that Barbados’ tourism product continues to be attractive and is well marketed. (JH)