BTA Putting $40 Million Into Special Marketing

Bridgetown._ In the face of a slowing industry, the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) is investing more than $40 million in an aggressive marketing thrust in a bid to establish niche markets in the United States, Britain and wider Europe, a BTA report indicates.

Chairman of the BTA’s marketing committee, Ralph Taylor, said that between $40 million to $42 million of its overall budget would be devoted to marketing, with more than $1 million going to a program with US Airways.

He acknowledged that there had been “a drop-off over the last two months in the British market” and, as a result, the BTA was committed to implementing corrective measures to address the fall-off in a market he described as tough.

There are plans for an additional flight out of Gatwick with a company called Golden Caribbean Monarch Airlines from July and a second flight out of Manchester in December. That marketing thrust will cost Barbados about $700 000.

Taylor said there was also the possibility of a flight by Continental out of New Jersey by year-end. The hope is that with this new marketing thrust, arrivals out of the United States would improve between 15 and 20 per cent this year.

He also spoke of the forthcoming summer program, adding that one of its features would be to cash in on the honeymoon program. The hotel executive added that a golf package had been put in place involving Sandy Lane and the Barbados Golf Club.

Arrivals out of Europe were slightly disappointing and Andrew Nehaul had been appointed as a consultant “to help develop our business in Europe”, Taylor said.

Nehaul recommended BTA to widened its European net to include Spain, Austria, Switzerland, “and many areas of western Europe where we were not getting any tourists”.