Inducing Performance From A Tired Tourism Plant

Adrian Loveridge – Hotel Owner

If any single statement made so far this year, should have sent a wake-up call to our tourism policymakers, it perhaps was the one made recently by the President of the Barbados Bankers Association (BBA), Horace Cobham at a luncheon meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.

‘That of all the commercial bank loans that were more than three months behind (non-performing), 43 per cent were from hotel and tourism clients’.

Not only is this a damning indictment of the state of our most important foreign currency earner but what compounds the seriousness of the situation, is the timing. Traditionally, most tourism enterprises make their monies in terms of revenue and profits during the four winter months. Once you get past Easter, both occupancy and average room rates plummet in most cases. Therefore, simply put, if such a large percentage are struggling to keep up with loan repayments now, imagine what it could be like by October or November.

Tourism Marketing Plan Needed To Squeeze More From US Market

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

I was recently castigated in a public forum by a senior member of the Barbados Tourism Authority over a question I posed, concerning the Dallas/Fort Worth/Barbados flight being reduced from three to just one flight per week. The criticism was that I should have sought clarification from the BTA first. In an ideal world, perhaps this argument has merit, but the BTA employs over 130 persons and there is, some may say thankfully, just one of me.

Trying, again, desperately to focus on the message rather than drag individual personalities into the equation, it graphically highlights just how fragmented communication is currently, between the tourism stakeholders and the national marketing agency. We in the private sector have to better articulate that there is a cost and a consequence to receiving delayed policy decisions. Second guessing and speculation cannot be an option.

As soon as conclusions are made, in which case our guests, and I suspect others, are directly effected, to the point where we could literally lose a substantial number of hotel room nights. Surely then it is only logical to disseminate to all that it may involve. We would then, have adequate opportunity to contact our guests and soften the blow, perhaps even offering one additional night’s lodging on a complimentary basis, rather than the negative financial implications it would bring.

Notes From a Native Son – Is There a Wider Lesson In Corporate Barbados From The Almond Crisis?

Hal Austin

Introduction:
It is always sad news when a business runs in to commercial trouble, but the Almond Resorts car crash was well telegraphed. It is clear that the so-called all-inclusive business model, although attractive in theory in that it gives consumers a rough guide as to how much they will spend, in practice it is untenable because providers see it as a good area in which to cut costs, stretch revenue streams and, more worrying, they need to fabricate a story of social pathology on the outside to terrify customers in to staying within their walls.

As a model for producing sound cash flow and profitability, the jury is still out; and as for being a model built on fear, that is a matter for governments. Even so, this negative policy not only denies visitors from enjoying the real hospitality of local people, it also gives the operators the freedom to manage the supply of ‘free’ food and drink by conveniently running out of supplies at the most inconvenient times and limiting the other services offered to their captive customers as a central part of business practice.

In tax terms, payments are often made outside the local jurisdiction and drip fed in to the local business as and when required. This means that in terms of the company’s revenue and profit and loss, this can easily be manipulated by the firm’s accountants to the advantage of its shareholders and executives. Almond Beach Village may not indulge in all or any of these practices, but as a 400-bed facility with reported debt of about Bds$100m, something has gone seriously wrong.

REDjet And re-Discover Caribbean

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

By now, much of our energy would be going into fine tuning the annual re-DISCOVER the Caribbean Show, which usually takes place in late April. Just in time for the longer and leaner eight summer month tourism season. Sadly, unless a major sponsor comes forward, it will not take place this year and this may prove to be one of the biggest mistakes ever.

The Barbados Tourism Authority lost interest in what would have been the eighth annual show by reducing their already limited financial support and not even being prepared to ‘man’ a stand for the two days of the event. This despite a compliment of over 130 staff members and the enthusiastic support in the past by the current Minister of Tourism. In fact, before entering office, he won and enjoyed one of the spectacular prizes donated by our many exhibitors.

It became ever more difficult to explain to the twenty other participating Caribbean countries, who were willing and enable to send a delegation, often at considerable cost, when the national marketing agency of the host country was half-heartedly supporting the endeavour.

Notes From a Native Son – Is Brand Barbados As Good As It Is Claimed?

Hal Austin

It comes as no surprise to me that the chief executive of Almond Resorts has been talking to staff at the physically lovely Almond Beach Village in St Peter and Almond Beach Club in St James. As it happens, I have had a nasty and toxic experience with both hotels in October and predicted then that they would soon die a natural death.

First, the business model is dysfunctional, the so-called all-inclusive model, which in my analysis is culturally poisonous, commercially short-sighted and takes not a blind interest of the tourists’ Barbados experience. This archaic and incompetent business model is in part a lot to do with hotel regulators and governments in Barbados (DLP and BLP) who allow this form of business to exist.

Confirmation of this is the silly financial economic claims of a leading Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association leader that to allow Almond Resorts to go to the wall, which it should, would be a ‘systemic risk’ to the Barbados economy. This idiot should be kept as far away from the functioning of the Barbados economy as drug dealer Mr Garcia should be from Barbados.

Saturday Night Fish Fry

By Baba Elombe Mottley

AYou don=t have to pay the usual admission

If you are a cook or a waiter or a good musician

So if you happen to be just  passing by

Stop in at the Saturday Night Fish Fry.@

- Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five

Martin=s Bay like a loop.  A loop that curls like a noose to knot a shallow beach between a black scarred reef and a black macadam road.  Potted once upon a time  in the sands were singularly lean coconut trees to shelter this fragile loop of beach in a speckled shade. That was a time when fishing boats had sails.  A distant loop from a distant past where the sea salt blinded ambition.

And Martin=s Bay people always lingered in my mind as having a sense of  privacy that was uniquely their own.  There wasn=t much land but what there was was planted with bay houses and homes held precariously together by rust and paint.

Martin=s Bay is an outpost.  As far from the tourist industry as imagination can make.  Not interesting enough to force the tourist buses down the loop.  Not even to see the remnants of a  long gone train or to hear the strains of the mythical and mystical Brumley band hiding in the wind.

A Neglected Sector – The Contribution Of Small Hotels To The Tourism Product

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

Operating a small hotel, clearly I have to declare a bias towards this sub-sector. But from a national point of view in terms of revenue and employment generation, have we ever analysed which type of our diverse lodging offerings proportionally delivers the highest net income to the country year after year?

What type of accommodation provides the most jobs per occupied room night and highest percentage turnover that remains in Barbados?

And this should not include just the bed nights, but secondary spending in restaurants, attractions activities, car rental, shopping etc. We should then ask which sub-sector consistently achieves the closest to published rack room rates, without having to dramatically discount to attract tour operators.

Then question which properties solicit the highest levels of guest satisfaction and repeat guests. If the world’s largest travel website, TripAdvisor, can be used as a barometer does the fact that every one of the top ten rated hotels in Barbados are small have any significance?

Seizing The Opportunity To Be Heard Above The Din

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

There perhaps, in these trying times, can be no more apt expression than Carpe Diem or seize the day in terms of exploiting every possible opportunity in destination marketing. As an example, even before the dust had settled on the Super Bowl final or the victors partying had abated, within hours the Aruba Tourism Authority was out there, offering the losing side, a complimentary holiday. In a press release the CEO of the authority, Ronella Tijn stated ‘ We want to acknowledge and celebrate the hard work, dedication and season-long success of the team, despite their loss. We believe there is no better place to recover after a loss than Aruba. After all, we are known as ‘One Happy Island’.

Whether or not the New England Patriots take up the offer, massive attention throughout the US media has been grabbed in the wake of one of the most watched sporting events in the country, at very little, if any cost. I don’t suppose for a single second that Ms. Tjin woke up the morning after the event and suddenly thought of this idea. I am sure if their advertising agency, especially if it is based in the United States would have had it among suggestions to maximise awareness, especially at such a critical vacation booking period.

Barbados Tourism Master Plan Needed

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

In May this year an announcement was made that plans were underway by the BTA to commence a planning process to analyse and define the Barbados destination brand.

According to a media release, the Chairman was ‘particularly concerned that the study evaluates the relevance and strength of the brand for both Barbadians and visitors’. He stated ‘once we get the information, it may tell us that the brand is fine; but it may also tell us that we have work to do, and I think we can all agree that this is probably going to be the outcome. We will then harmonise that work into creating a strategy for rolling out our new brand promise into the markets’.

Of course, it makes absolute sense, but six months later, how closer are we to this objective?

Simon Anholt wrote in his excellent essay entitled ‘ ‘Why National Image Matters’: ‘Today, every country, city and region on earth must compete with every other for its share of the world’s commercial, political, social and cultural transactions in what is virtually a single market. As in any busy marketplace, brand image becomes critical: almost nobody has the time, the patience or the expertise to understand the real differences between the offerings of one country or another, and so people fall back on their fundamental beliefs and prejudices about those countries to help them make their decisions. Just as in the commercial marketplace that ‘brand image’ provides a short cut to an informed buying decision’.

An Election-Oriented Budget: WATCH OUT!

George C. Brathwaite

Next week bears an awful foreboding for Barbadians from all walks of life and all sectors contributing to the national economy. There is further predictable gloom on the economic horizon; this fact is based upon two significant things. For starters, the global economy remains as volatile and uncertain as it has been since 2007; the UK, USA, and Europe as whole are fighting stubbornly to bring about some stability in the context that their economies are still courting a double-dip recession, unable to kick-start employment, and are battling a series of corruption and other forms infelicitous charges regarding the public purse.

The second factor speaks to the lack or insufficiency of innovative economic mechanisms by government to deal with the shocks and turbulence impacting on Barbados given its peculiarities of a very low manufacturing base, a weak export climate, a restricted services economy, a fixed exchange rate regime, and an ever increasing import bill that far surpasses the capacity of the country’s production and consumption. Together these things make the job of Minister of Finance a perplexing one especially considering his ‘greenness’ to the profession notwithstanding his enthusiasm and/or other attributes.

From recent memory, perhaps the only Barbadian that I may say who would cherish and not envy the current Minister’s position is the Leader of the Opposition despite his acknowledgement of the tremendous task and acumen that is necessarily required for a return of Barbados to relative economic success. In my opinion, even with Mr. Arthur the difficulties would not disappear despite he may offer some confidence in the economy and inspire the local private sector based upon his track record. This is likely to be the case since in all fairness to potential leaders and economists, very few if any public statements made in the past year have suggested new economic paths for the country. Yet there is little dispute about the country’s economic accomplishments under his leadership.

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Barbados Should Forget Chinese Tourists, The Key Is Adequate Airlift From Traditional Markets And Creating Local Value Packages!

Andrew Nehaul

What is this madness I continue to read regarding Chinese tourism and Barbados? We have not been able to get the marketing formula right regarding Caribbean, American, British or European tourism and here we go talking about Chinese tourism?

All tourism pundits will agree that the major hindrance to increasing tourism numbers is adequate airlift at reasonable prices.  I am saying nothing new when I repeat that to control our destiny we must control some of the seats from the major markets. For example, if our major Caribbean market is from Trinidad, then identify the weeks that they travel mostly and see that there are enough air seats at the right price to suffice them. Extend this to other weeks that might also create demand.  Using this formula we can adapt it to other markets.

Another hindrance is local prices.  Car hire, food, restaurant, services and attractions etc. All of them are suffering from lack of demand. How do we overcome this? By recreating a local value package which is distributed to all visitors and locals alike during a specific time.

Barbados Aggressively Promoting Sports Tourism In Europe

The Barbados AAdvantage Opportunity

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

Imagine having a virtually captive audience, motivated by all the right reasons and that is larger than your main source tourism market, the United Kingdom. That’s perhaps how we should be viewing the world’s first and probably the most successful loyalty programme, American Airlines AAdvantage.

Last year their 66 million members redeemed more than 165 billion miles to claim nearly 7.2 million awards for flights, upgrades and other rewards. Why do I consider it such an important tool to drive higher arrival numbers?

These people through their smart spending choices are accumulating the means to travel. In fact it goes beyond that now. Since last November, the programme has been expanded to allow members to redeem miles for car hire and hotel stays at more than 10,000 locations in 320 destinations worldwide. There is also the flexibility of using only miles or a combination of cash plus as few as 1,000 AAdvantage miles.