Chairman of the Barbados Port Inc., Senator Lisa Cummins (left), makes a point while Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Stephen Austin, listens attentively during the BHTA’s first quarterly general meeting at the Hilton Hotel yesterday.
Tourism stakeholders during the meeting yesterday.
THE novel coronavirus, also called COVID-19, is a game-changer for the world and indeed the tourism industry in this country, which is expected to lose millions in revenue as a result of the spread of the virus.
So says Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Stephen Austin. According to the hotelier, the industry has been hard hit by the spread of the virus, which has been recorded in all of this country’s major tourism partners. He made the comments yesterday during the Association’s first quarterly general meeting at the Hilton Hotel. That meeting is likely to be the last time for a while that the BHTA’s membership will be able to meet in such numbers, given that Minister of Health, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic announced yesterday that Barbados has recorded its first two cases of COVID-19 and would be restricting public gatherings to no more than 100 persons.
“To implore to you that last week we had over US$1.8 million in cancellations tells you nothing, other than that we will lose money in the next three to six months in terms of revenues with booking down... Just between last week and this week the Intimate Hotels would have lost over US$300,000 in cancellations. Vacation rental properties are 80 per cent down from the same period last year and bookings are pretty much zero for the next six months, with cancellations accelerating daily,” he told those gathered.
To an audience that included Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds and Chairman of the Barbados Port Inc., Senator Lisa Cummins, he added that in terms of the island’s tourist attractions, restaurants and the like, with the cruise industry currently on a hiatus, they have noticed a drop in business of between 50 and 70 per cent.
“What does that really mean? It means that it is really not summer; it’s a season that we have never had before – COVID-19 season. But we can’t just despair, we can’t just look at all the figures of the reductions,” he said.
Austin said it is imperative that there be a positive approach to the situation, to be able to survive the coming three to six months. The focus, he told the BHTA membership, must be on protecting workers, protecting themselves, protecting their businesses and protecting the country. He said the goal is to come out of this situation with the least casualties. As part of their efforts to sustain the sector, he said they will be training 400 members between this Thursday and next Monday on such things as how to greet persons, so as to help minimise the spread of COVID-19.
He said while unfortunate, the reality is that some businesses will close as a result of the slowdown in the economy, but he said the BHTA has a role to play in minimising those losses. He said to cope at this time they will have to employ the staff rotations used in the summer months as well as train and retool staff.
With that in mind, he urged members to be remain positive. His comments came as he said that the BHTA Board is looking to present a comprehensive paper to Government to give some insight into how Government can assist the sector and how they can work together to ensure businesses operate for the next three to six months.
“We need to find a way maybe to defer payments to VAT, some tax relief in terms of tax delay in terms of payment of land tax without penalties and interest,” he said. (JRT)