There was a time not so long ago when you had to reserve weeks in advance to cruise on the MV Harbour Master. Lately though the boat had been looking a little shopworn and half full most of the time. I can’t remember when I’ve seen it at capacity like the old days.
Is this a major or minor indicator of the health of our tourism industry? Is it a local management issue… or is it, as the owners told Barbados Today, just part of a natural venue cycle – made worse by the arrival of the Jolly Roger?
The boat is off to Trini after New Years with 15 jobs gone. And folks… that boat and those jobs aren’t returning anytime soon.
I have this feeling that most of what I read and hear in the news these days is “put on a happy face” stuff, but every so often a story just cuts through the cow manure and stands with clarity and truth. This is one of those stories.
They can’t fill the boat anymore.
End of story.
Photo courtesy of Barbados Today – doing Bajan news much better than The Nation, The Barbados Advocate and the CBC all put together.
Read Barbados Today: MV Harbour Master destined for T&T
Barbados Free Press 
It’s a ‘hard candy christmas’ for plenty of Bajan folks this year. Next year ain’t looking too sweet either. Meanwhile the screwed up Gov’t spouts mis-information about improved tourist arrivals even whilst the BHTA scream blue murder due to the decreasing hotel occupany…..Where the heck are these so called tourists sleeping, outside the Treasury building?
So much for Roy Morris and his rape charge, guess BFP forgave him and in so doing endorses a publication which was founded by a defiler of young defenseless women – I must say, Kyffin & Bizzy invested their money well, did they bankroll BFP too?
This is simply a case of bad marketing on behalf of Harbor Master. What has the ship done in recent times to attract people to go on it? Fetes all over Barbados sold out people shelling out big bucks to party here and there yet the boat half empty. What new promotions did they launch? what new features, services, shows, activities, themes, menu, hours, social media ideas, DJ, paint colour ANYTHING to help them selves. WARNING: bajan businesses are TOO LAZY! they do not want to innovate or aggressively go after business. They want to do the same thing over and over and expect people to come and give $$ to them. Many more will fail just like this.
I notice that when locals start to frequent an entertainment venue that once was popular amongst tourist that shortly after the business goes bust.I observed it with club Extreme and the Ship Inn.Seems that once the tourist dollar gone the place gone too.
@Agela Ifill
The reality is the younger generation are not coming to Barbados and that is why you dont see them at venues like Club Extreme and what was the Shipp Inn. They all going to Cuba, Mexcio, Dominican where for $900 they can get flight, all inclusive, and party with as much free booze as they can drink.
This is a little off topic but in light of the concerns expressed in this article http://news.barbadostoday.bb/barticlenew.php?ptitle=Steering down the barrel&article=12764 about the predicted decline in tourism and the possible closure of a number of hotels in 2012, what is the justification for investing 60 million dollars into the Four Seasons “white elephant” project again? The rich continue to thrive and the tax payers struggle to survive. – Fed up of political parties that don’t give a damn
It’s a shame, I always enjoyed my nights on the Harbour Master, good food, good show and especially a good time.
I would have to agree with “Angela Ifill” comments above, noticed the same thing myself but could not believe this was happening.
So sad…I only went on the Harbour Master once….It was fun… would of loved to do it again when I came to Barbados but its gone….but on the good side….the Jolly Roger left Barbados and eventually came back hopefully this would be the same for the Harbour Master but WHY must the Harbour Master leave us? Its sooo popular…its right for Barbados….this makes NO sense!
Ok…Bajan Helicopters gone, Harbour Master gone, many hotels, night clubs and restaurants gone….what next?
Backwater Barbados?
Happening quite rapidly now?
I hope the rest of guys are watching..the Harbour master was greedy from the get go ..you had to sweat blood and tears to make a profit when these guys could have charge a (decent) overall price,But no! they wanted the bar also for themselves.This was just a matter of time.
Bring back the Bajan Queen, the harboursplasher was always a dog of a boat.
…Pop you have struck the nail right on its head but sadly the nail is a 10penny and the hammers head just ain’t carrying enough weight to drive that sucker home so here is some assistance. The Harbour Master is ultimately an events location that floats which needs events in volume to survive and for those events to take shape they need promoters, a person or group who is willing to work with the H.Master, plus put in that effort and time to produce a really wonderful event. Now the two little words everyone must focus on in the above sentence is ‘…work with…’ The H.Master for too, too many years was just not willing to work with these promoters unless you the promoter are good friends with someone on the inside. H.Master just didn’t value the relationships it had with its promoters, so no matter how much paint, slide, new sound system or marketing they have or do their biggest asset was the promoter. Cant say I’m happy to see it go because of the jobs lost but I’m not surprised to see it go.
how much people can the harbour master hold?
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