The establishment of public private partnerships (PPPs) is key to making Barbados’ tourism product sustainable.
This is the view of Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.’s (BTMI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Jens Thraenhart, who believes this can transition the island’s tourism industry from being seen only as a seasonal destination.
The CEO suggested this during the ‘State of the Tourism Industry Update’ held by the BTMI and Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), at Hilton Barbados Resort, on Wednesday, November 23.
Dr. Thraenhart pointed out that the main challenge to the island’s tourism product was it being seen as seasonal and about just beaches, when in fact the island has so much more to offer.
He said the time had come to retell the story of Destination Barbados, which would drive consumer demand and result in increased revenue earnings from the sector.
“The world has become digital. So we need to look at business transformation, we need to be data-driven, we also need to be mobile. We need to be sustainable, we need to look at climate action, creativity, and transparency, and we need to be people-centric, to drive inclusivity and life experiences. And how do we do that? We do that through public-private partnerships….
“And that’s why it’s so important that all of you are here today to see how we can collaborate and build a framework to engage all stakeholders and create inclusive initiatives to build a balanced sustainable destination for generations to come,” he stated.
In addition, the BTMI CEO pointed out that the old model of interacting with the market via pushing out a message to consumers and businesses must end, and the new model being used where everyone engages together to build a collaborative framework must be embraced.
This, he stressed, involved communicating efficiently within the sector and utilising the data available to make timely and effective decisions, which would enable Barbados to become a smart destination.
It was pointed out that by becoming a smart destination, Barbados would benefit from an increased return on investment and increased conversions; a better understanding of its customers; increased time to market the island’s product offering, and create new business opportunities, especially for smaller businesses.
Dr. Thraenhart disclosed that future marketing campaigns would be collaborative and data-driven, and by utilising PPPs, campaigns would then be collaborative where all the various businesses from small to large scale “would drive the messages and engage our customers from residents to travellers via incentive schemes”.
Alluding to one of the upcoming campaigns which the department is working on, called “Bajan Experiences Collection”, he said it aims to highlight Bajan culture in the category of stay, taste, do, shop and tour.
“The purpose of the ‘Bajan Experiences Collection’ will be to build resilience for these micro, small, tourism businesses, to build a community of like-minded businesses to network and build capacity, foster innovation, and collaboratively reposition Barbados; and finally drive revenue to these experienced providers and the result will be a resilient and sustainable tourism industry,” CEO Thraenhart explained.
He pointed out that by working together the sector would become stronger as PPPs frameworks would allow for a transition from destination marketing to destination management.