If all goes according to plan, this country could soon have a flight from the west coast of the United States along with a tourism marketing team there to help spur visitor arrivals from that area.
Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill gave this indication on Monday, as he disclosed that discussions have begun with airlines to see if a flight arrangement
Many of the systems at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) are outdated and need to be upgraded.This was disclosed by the Director of Engineering at the GAIA Karen Walkes on Monday, as she responded to questions in the well of the Lower House when debate kicked off on the 2023/2024 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.She said that in her estimation, scanners and generators were among the critical items that needed to “commence and complete replacement during this year to ensure the continued operations of the airport”.Pointing out that the airport had been in a “long period of economic downturn”, Walkes said recovery started around 2017 but was stymied by the COVID-19 pandemic which started to affect the island in March 2020.“So we would have been deferring replacements and major maintenance at the airport for quite a period of time and many of our systems are actually past their original planned use for life,” Walkes revealed.“So we have actually engaged in
Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill is rubbishing suggestions that neighbouring destinations such as St Lucia and Grenada were performing much better than Barbados since the COVID-19 pandemic.As debate began today on the Appropriations Bill 2023 in the House of Assembly with the focus on the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport’s allocation of $26.5 million for this financial year, the minister described the suggestion as a “nonsense argument”, pointing out that Barbados was relatively late in removing many of the COVID-19 restrictions that impacted the travel and hospitality sector.Moreover, the tourism minister, who is five months into the job, but is a long-standing tourism executive, told the Lower Chamber that Barbados attracts three times as many visitors as Grenada and 1.5 times more than Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia was still behind Barbados in arrivals numbers.Responding to a question from Minister of Sport and Member of Parliament for St John, Charles
An aerospace engineer is expressing optimism that regional carrier LIAT can be revived.However, said Professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, John-Paul Clarke, it will require political will and a short-term incentive scheme from governments.At the same time, Clarke said he believed Caribbean governments should work together to attract wide-bodied long-haul planes to the region and introduce incentives to allow small regional carriers to provide connectivity to the various islands.“That would help intra-regional travel because that connectivity there would become a bridge and you know there are lots of small carriers. LIAT would be resurrected in some form. I have faith that will happen. So there is lots of potential there,” he said.“We need to take a holistic approach and the governments of the region have to think about whether they are going to do it themselves or provide the incentives for the private sector to do it. But that is something I wi
By Marlon Madden
ON ASSIGNMENT
Global Tourism Resilience Conference - Jamaica
While admitting that Barbados was “late out of the blocks” when it came to the full resumption of travel in and out of the island, Minister of Tourism Ian Gooding-Edghill says he is pleased with the level of recovery achieved so far.
Though not providing the latest figures, Gooding-Edghill told the Global Tourism