Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins.
The Ministry of Tourism is in the process of developing a value chain council for the tourism sector.
So says Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins. She made the disclosure while delivering the feature address during the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association’s Third Quarterly General Meeting held via Zoom yesterday, as she spoke to what Government is doing to refashion the tourism and travel sector, given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Cummins, that council will include such entities as the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) and the Small Business Association, the productive sectors and the “drivers of capital and labour”. She indicated that the focus will be on reimagining the tourism sector, and she stated that goal is anchored around four main platforms that the Ministry is looking to roll out by January 2021. Her comments came as she said it is no longer business as usual and given that there will also be no return to business as usual, the focus cannot simply be on this moment in time, as we would risk being left behind after COVID has passed.
“So we in the Ministry are spending a significant amount of time mitigating the impact of what is happening now, dealing yes with the issues facing you now; but we are also simultaneously deploying a significant amount of time and resources towards planning for what comes next and that is where we are spending the most significant part of our energy,” she said.
PPP being designed
With that in mind, she said they are in the process of designing the public private partnership (PPP) approach for the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), so that when COVID-19 is in the “rear view mirror”, the country has the opportunity to emerge with a marketing entity that positions destination Barbados on the international stage, in a “completely reimagined and competitive way”. She went further speaking about other PPPs being pursued by Government, providing an update on that matter as it relates to Caves of Barbados Ltd. and the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA).
In respect of Harrison Cave, she revealed that they are in receipt of four bids for the PPP. She explained that they have been assessed and recommendations should be made to Cabinet as early as this week regarding how to proceed. Meanwhile, Cummins went on to say that the GAIA Inc. PPP is well underway, adding that the BTMI is working with local and international partners to do forecasting with respect to air travel.
“What they have been asked to do is to assess the forecasting for international air traffic and to give us models for how we can plan, and one of those documents is going to inform the GAIA PPP. But the second document which is most important to us and to you, is going to help us project where confidence rest in terms of international travel globally - what are our source markets, what’s happening in the airline industry and how we can plan for a post COVID environment while mitigating the during COVID environment,” she said.
Minister Cummins said that within the next two to three months, the hope is that they would be in a position to share the projection data with the stakeholders in the sector to aid in the decision making. She went further stating that even when the PPP is in place, aspects of the GAIA’s operations will remain under Government control, including private hangar services, with the hope that the airport will benefit from increased traffic of private planes.
“We are going to be developing new business plans and GAIA has been tasked with the responsibility to work with our partners, including many of you here, to develop a new business strategy to attract new segments in the market here to Barbados,” she added. (JRT)