Parrots, Green Monkeys And Tourist Dollars In Barbados
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Monkey Knows What Tourism Is All About!
Should Tourists Pay Extra To Visit Barbados?
There are many beautiful beaches in the Caribbean - and some of the them are even in Barbados. The same Caribbean sun, sand and waves can be found from Florida in the north to Venezuela in the south, and from Mexico in the west to Barbados.
And it will cost tourists considerably less to sit on some of those beautiful beaches than on others.
The beautiful beaches of Barbados are unfortunately not the closest beaches to our main markets in Europe and North America - and that means that a vacation in Barbados is generally more expensive than in some of the closer mass market tourist destinations.
But our distance is also in some ways a blessing because it means that Barbados will never be swamped by the culture-destroying “lowest price” masses who have made sunning on the beach in Nassau virtually indistinguishable from Cancun or Miami. The distance and higher travel costs also mean that visitors expect something different, something better in Barbados than is presented by the cheaper, closer destinations.
And that is our challenge: to make Barbados worth the extra price of admission when compared with other destinations.
See The Beauty Of Jamaica… If You Dare
The island of Jamaica along the lush green coasts and in the mist-shrouded highlands puts Barbados to shame. I am speaking the truth. Although you may not like the truth, it is still the truth.
But Jamaica has a problem with violence and tourist safety - and increasingly, folks don’t care how beautiful it is… they aren’t going there!
So they look for other destinations, but many (like Cancun and Nassau) can be be described as a strip of sand bordered by high-rise condos.
We must ensure that Barbados does not turn into a wall of condos indistinguishable from so many other shorelines. We need green space, hills, solitary rugged cliffs being smashed by the sea. We need GREEN gullies - clean of rubbish and rusting motorcars. We need our nature preserves, monkeys and parrots.
But most of all, we need a population that sincerely welcomes every visitor to this island.
If all we have is beach and sun, our visitor numbers will soon whither, because if that is all we have to sell, we will never compete with those who can sell that vacation much cheaper.
Best to say hello to a visitor today, and really mean you welcome.
Your children’s future depends upon it.
