Kammie Holder picks up on a story broken by Barbados Free Press and asks some additional questions. A good take in this weeks’ Swimming Upstream, but we’d like to know if Kammie tried to credit BFP for breaking the story and The Nation editors quashed it. (That’s okay, Kammie. We still love ya no matter.)
Here’s an excerpt from Swimming Upstream: Embrace Nation Building
“It pains me to know that Barbados, as a sovereign state, in 2010 allows a foreign company to own the domain name http://www.visitebarbados.com, as well as its monthly hosting. Tell me which private corporation would enter such as arrangement for its marketing?
The Minister of Tourism needs to explain to the Prime Minister and the country why a domain name promoting Barbados costing US$2.99 is owned by a Brazilian company. We could all walk down Bridgetown and get US$2.99 from any patriotic vagrant to purchase this domain name from http://www.godaddy.com.
This is also an insult to Barbadian web designers and the Barbados Community College Portuguese tutor.
It also appears that some members of the Barbados Tourism Authority board were in the dark about this arrangement. Did this work for design and hosting of http://www.visitebarbados.com go out to tender?”
Further Reading
BFP, May 31 2010: After 10 years and 9 months of inaction Barbados Tourism Authority pays for a Portuguese language website… but we don’t own it!
Barbados Free Press 
I see the ministry of tourism just issued a tender for the new tourism master plan. This was something they said was being prepared some 2 years ago. Maybe elections are around the corner!!!!
If the contract was under BD$50,000.00 then a tender would not have been required.
Sometimes all I can do is shake my head.
$3,000,0000,www.barbados.org,www.visitbarbados.com, http://www.visitebarbados.com and the common thread. Read part two in Swimming Upstream Friday June 25th,2010.
Registrant: Make this info private
Barbados Tourism Authority
Harbour Road
Bridgetown, St.Michael 00
BB
Domain Name: VISITBARBADOS.ORG
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Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
Master, Web
webmaster@visitbarbados.org
Bridgetown
Bridgetown, 00
BB
Phone: 246 427 2623
Fax: 246 426 4080
Record expires on 10-Apr-2014
Record created on 10-Apr-2002
Database last updated on 15-Dec-2009
Domain servers in listed order: Manage DNS
NS25.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.190.13
NS26.WORLDNIC.COM 206.188.198.13
The below is my concern!
Registrant:
Gisele Abrahao
Gisele Abrahao (gisele.abrahao@gmail.com)
Al Fernao Cardim , 119
Sao Paulo
São Paulo,01403-020
BR
Tel. +055.1196273160
Creation Date: 31-Mar-2010
Expiration Date: 31-Mar-2011
Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.hphost.com.br
ns1.hphost.com.br
Administrative Contact:
Gisele Abrahao
Gisele Abrahao (gisele.abrahao@gmail.com)
Al Fernao Cardim , 119
Sao Paulo
São Paulo,01403-020
BR
Tel. +055.1196273160
Technical Contact:
Gisele Abrahao
Gisele Abrahao (gisele.abrahao@gmail.com)
Al Fernao Cardim , 119
Sao Paulo
São Paulo,01403-020
BR
Tel. +055.1196273160
Billing Contact:
Gisele Abrahao
Gisele Abrahao (gisele.abrahao@gmail.com)
Al Fernao Cardim , 119
Sao Paulo
São Paulo,01403-020
BR
Tel. +055.1196273160
Status:LOCKED
Note: This Domain Name is currently Locked. In this status the domain
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http://www.barbados.org was for many years the main promoter of the Barbadian tourism product.
Domain Name:BARBADOS.ORG
Created On:02-Jun-1996 04:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:18-Apr-2008 12:45:16 UTC
Expiration Date:01-Jun-2012 04:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:FE80209764DB8559
Registrant Name:Ian Clayton
Registrant Organization:Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia
Registrant Street1:PO Box 16b
Registrant Street2:NA
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Bridgetown
Registrant State/Province:St. Michael
Registrant Postal Code:BB
Registrant Country:BB
Registrant Phone:+1.2464318950
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:admin@axses.net
Admin ID:584ce99fbec
Admin Name:Ian Clayton
Admin Organization:AXSES Web Communications
Admin Street1:PO Box 16B
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Bridgetown
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:BB
Admin Country:BB
Admin Phone:+1.2464292653
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:admin@axses.net
Tech ID:584ce99fbec
Tech Name:Ian Clayton
Tech Organization:AXSES Web Communications