Government will continue to nurture this island???s tourism industry.

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart gave this assurance on Wednesday, while delivering the feature address at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry???s January 2016 Business Luncheon at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

Mr. Stuart noted that the tourism industry contributed massively to the island???s Gross Domestic Product, and expressed the view that it would continue to lead Barbados back to a state of growth. However, he stressed that its diversification was necessary.

He continued: ???Barbados is still feeling the impact of the global downturn. We have been trying to diversify our sources because with the best will in the world, if you have had a number of bad experiences that whenever our principal trading partners sneeze we end up catching a cold???, common sense dictates that we should diversify our relationships so that we don???t feel the full impact of any difficulties that our principal trading partners may have.???

Mr. Stuart pointed out that when tourism arrivals were down the argument here was about that decrease. Now the arrivals were up, he continued, the current argument was that tourist spend was not enough.

He proffered the view that the two factors which influenced the behaviour of tourists in that regard were a willingness to spend and an ability to spend, and insisted Government definitely could not control the latter.

sharon.austingill-moore@barbados.gov.bb

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