The 41st edition of Caribbean Travel Marketplace kicked off this week in Barbados, a truly historical event since this is the first time Barbados has been given the opportunity to host.
This year’s event took place at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. The event featured the second year of the Caribbean Travel Forum, which was started last year to focus on the economics of tourism in the Caribbean, with discussions on topics that include sustainability, intra-Caribbean travel, the growing air demand and connectivity concerns.
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) is holding the event only six months after last year’s Caribbean Travel Marketplace, which was a huge success hosted by Puerto Rico.
The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, gave the keynote address while Nicola Madden-Greig, President of the CHTA, delivered her State of the Region and Industry address. Madden-Greig said there were “currently more than 770 delegates registered, representing 50 countries,” with attendees including buyers, media and potential investors from all over the world.
Tourism officials from Barbados spoke about their mission to continuously evolve its tourism product, with the Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill, sharing that the island nation has been in discussion with Latin American and Middle Eastern countries.
The countries targeted were categorized as “strategic markets” due to their vast potential to grow the future number of visitors to Barbados.
If you are planning a Barbados vacation, visit our Hotel & Holiday Rental page.
A few other key Barbados highlights were:
By the end of the summer period, Barbados will recover 90 percent of the airline seats it had in 2019. JetBlue will land an additional 12,500 seats in Barbados, as the airline will double the daily service from New York during the summer period.
Air Canada will add an additional 8,850 seats during the period May to October, and WestJet will commence twice weekly services from mid-July to October 2023.
Condor is returning to Barbados in the winter season with a bigger aircraft containing 310 seats.
The winter 2022/2023 cruise season saw a remarkable recovery of 86 percent when compared to pre-pandemic levels, and during the winter season (September 2022 to April 2023), the island received 360 calls and a total of 615,445 passengers. Upcoming hotel developments include Wyndham Grand Resort (2023), Hotel Indigo (2024) and Pendry Hotels & Resorts (2026).
If you’re thinking of investing in property in Barbados, visit www.nvestestates.com for more information on available properties for sale and to schedule a viewing.
