Why Hasn’t Barbados Seen Any Growth In Visitors From The USA?

by Adrian Loveridge

I hope ‘we’ have a plan.

In less than two months we will see the arrival of two new air services. Factually the return of one from Philadelphia (US Airways) and a brand new addition, JetBlue from New York!

There is no doubt in my mind that JetBlue aggressive pricing will drive new business, even though American Airlines were quick to match fares on certain routes. Competition has certainly worked with the arrival of WestJet from Canada.

But in many respects the United States for us, is a different market and even before the current global economic crisis, it has not really seen any significant or sustained growth over the last six years or so.

It’s been a great puzzle to me for sometime why an increasingly disproportionate percentage of the BTA annual budget is consistently spent on this market with no real growth achieved.

The CTO (Caribbean Tourism Organisation) figures speak for themselves. Long stay US visitor arrivals to Barbados were for 2003 (129,326), 2004 (129,664), 2005 (131,005), 2006 (130,767), 2007 (134,041) and 2008 (131,003).

JetBlue are scheduled to operate Airbus 320’s with 150 seats daily, so a massive 54,750 seat capacity annually.

US Airways return initially with four times a week from October and then daily from December using an Airbus 319 with 124 seat capacity. Depending what happens after the peak season this will add another 29,760 to 42,160 seats annually.

So nearly another 100,000 seats a year from a market that has not experienced a increase of more than 3,274 long stay visitor arrivals in in any one of the last six years.

A new advertising agency was appointed in North America early this year and maybe they have some spectacular plans that those of us in tourism are not aware of yet. Despite a late booking pattern, two months is still a very short window of opportunity and I really hope we can maximise this wonderful opportunity.

As someone that tries to follow tourism closely, I have frankly been surprised not to receive details inviting hoteliers and tourism players onto road shows, travel agency and tour operator visits or in fact any promotional activities that include the service providers to the JetBlue and US Airways gateways and connecting cities.

Adrian Loveridge

Peach & Quiet Hotel,
Barbados

Barbados High Court Justice, Supermodel Jodie Kidd’s Father Both Caught Breaking Law – Corporate Records Funny Business Surfaces During Land Fraud Trial

UPDATE: May 9, 2010

We saw on Google alerts that “Polo champion Jack Kidd’s fiancee Callie Moore has announced she is pregnant – just months after the couple cancelled their planned summer wedding.”

Congratulations to Jack and Callie!

The Kidds are one of Bim’s upper crust families and we’ll point out that they have done so much good. Nonetheless, they’ve had their ups and downs and we follow the family’s news with the interest that comes with all celebrity. We admit it!

So… which old story to feature?

We searched our own database for Kidd stories and we came up with a few. This is the one we’ve chosen to leave at the top for a few days. If you want to see them all, search “KIDD” in the little box at the top right and you’ll have them all.

Meanwhile, I’ll listen to “Let it be” from my father’s old LP collection (LPs !!!!) and you can read this article from August 4, 2009…

Actions of Barbados High Court Justice Elneth Kentish & Businessman Johnny Kidd Are What President Obama Warned About!

President Obama Targets Offshore Tax Havens that don't enforce corporate standards.

The Obama Administration is on the offensive against offshore banking jurisdictions like Barbados – in part because Barbados often allows corporations to play fast and wild with the few laws we do have about records keeping and accountability.

Most readers of Barbados blogs are somewhat familiar with the story of the Kingsland Estates dispute and the fraud allegations and trials concerning a billion dollars of prime Barbados real estate that have been going on for some years now.

We don’t intend to go into the details at this time except to note that the story continues and will not die. (For background see BFP’s How One Of The Richest Women In Barbados Was Robbed Of Everything By Scheming Lawyers, Politicians and Government Insiders)

Corporate Laws ignored by Judges, Other Powerful People in Barbados

The one thing that Barbadians and others have learned from following the story is how the powerful people on one side of the case keep violating Barbados laws concerning corporate records and never get charged with any offense for re-writing history whenever it suits their purposes.

The latest case of this lawbreaking has just been posted over at Keltruth blog – complete with copies of the corporate records that prove yet another Barbados judge has been caught fooling around with the truth and violating the law to do it. (See Keltruth’s article: Company Breaks Law – Barbados High Court Judge Involved)

It works like this: whenever a corporation owned by Barbados big-ups is involved in any legal fracas, it is not unusual for the corporate records to be changed retroactively, even years later. Someone will be sued and back will come the corporate record showing that person resigned from the corporation YEARS AGO – but they just “forgot” to put in the legal paperwork about that despite the law says they must do so immediately.