Bigger Tourist Inflow Benefits Barbados’s Economy

Barbados’s economy is growing by $66.5 million thanks to heftier tourist inflows logged between December 2003 and April this year. In that span of time, the Caribbean island’s travel industry jumped 12 percent compared to the previous period.

Estimates reckoned by Barbados’s Tourism Ministry indicate the recently concluded wintertime season was the best in years, yielding $259 million worth of revenues for the tourist sector.

Daily spending averaged $176 per tourist, thus making the country’s hard-currency income soar to a whopping 34.4 percent in the first four months of the ongoing year.

According to the report, the biggest chunk of visitors hailed from Great Britain, Canada and the U.S.

Barbados’s leisure industry –penciled in as its premier income source- fared humbly since after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., an occurrence that did quite a number on the entire Caribbean Basin.

The report also concludes that local aviation, also hit hard by the attacks, is now bouncing back.

Since then, Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean islands have implemented countless programs aimed at stimulating travel industry growth.