Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy, said Barbados??? reputation as a resilient destination was further boosted with the overwhelming response from tour operators attending the Reconnect Barbados conference.
He praised the ongoing relationship with the critical partners during a reception at Nico???s Two Restaurant, Sugar Hill Estates, Westmoreland, last Wednesday night.
Mr. Sealy said the Reconnect Barbados global tour operator event, under the theme: Reconnect and Revitalise was ???the biggest Connect BGI that we have ever had and I think it is wonderful and says a lot about how resilient we are as a destination???.
He further stated: ???These are not just 80 ordinary visitors???or 80 ordinary travel agents??? These are the packagers???and it says a lot at this time [that] Barbados is still capable of [attracting] every major tour operator partner from all our source markets including Brazil. I want to thank all the players, traditional operators and Europe as well, for coming out to this event.???
The Acting Prime Minister said opportunities where tourism players could interact with each other were important as they assisted governments in crafting the requisite policies and programmes that would improve the tourism product.
???Feel free to even vent a little so that we can have ideas that we can input; that we can then reform and adjust to do better, because the whole idea is to continue to grow the industry which, simply put, is the lifeblood of this economy,??? Mr. Sealy underlined.
julie.carrington@barbados.gov.bb