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Regional travel needs to be improved. The view from Barbados.

Posted by CaribShout on August 3, 2009 at 8:04pm
REGIONAL airlift and regional travel are proving a difficult mix for Barbadian tourism planners. With the Caribbean market Barbados’ third most important one, Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy lamented how difficult it was for Caribbean people to travel within their region. Sealy told local, regional, and international media yesterday that he had gotten a taste of the problem recently when it took him even longer than it usually did to reach to the United Kingdom to reach Grenada. Speaking during the Barbados Tourism Authority usual Crop Over Press Conference at Hilton Barbados, the minister said regional leaders were intensifying efforts to fix LIAT’s problems, something he said could not have come soon enough. The official said while the Caribbean was Barbados “third most significant market” it was also “the most difficult one with respect to airlift”. “As impossible as that might sound, it is probably easier to get to some far flung parts of the world than it is to get just over the water to one of our neighbouring islands and I know that only too well,” he said. “I was going to Grenada recently and my flight was scheduled to leave at five. It left at 10 then they dumped you off in St. Vincent. Suffice it to say that if I had gotten on the Virgin aircraft that was on the ground when I was in Grantley Adams (International Airport) I would have gotten to London before I got to Grenada in the end and that is something that unfortunately has been a characteristic of our regional travel for some time now”. He was happy that officials including Prime Minister David Thompson were “getting to the bottom of that immediate situation and then of course the longer term problem of the viability of LIAT is something that needs to be dealt with and the options are being looked at”. “I imagine that in the fullness of time the Prime Minister will address us on that scenario. We do recognise the problem about the availability of flights, the reliability of flights and the cost of flights in the region is just not up to scratch and it is receiving attention and we hope to get that dealt with,” he said. Sealy also praised the contribution of LIAT and Caribbean Airlines for their contribution to this year’s Crop Over Festival “by putting on some extra rotations and so on to deal with the demand. And so if we are going to give them their lashes we have to give them their bouquet as well”. “It has not been easy but they have worked with us and I think that that is good. It is also very encouraging for our future intentions of attracting more business from the Caribbean,” he stated.

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