Travelsmart
Barbados Tourism Marketing chief executive, William Griffith, has revealed the island enjoyed a 4.2 per cent increase in stay-over arrivals in the first nine months of 2019 when compared to the same period last year.
Between January and September, Barbados welcomed 522,583 visitors through the enhanced Grantley Adams International Airport, thereby accounting for an increase of 21,200 visitors.
The BTMI continues to aggressively pursue new cruise marketing and product development initiatives, which has projected cruise arrivals to reach around 840,000 by the end of December.
It is anticipated that these initiatives will contribute to longer term growth.
Of Barbados’ major source markets, Central and South America recorded the highest growth for 2019, up by 11 per cent, followed by the United States at 9.5 per cent.
Germany and the United Kingdom also performed favourably, with increases of 5.7 and 8.7 per cent respectively.
Griffith applauded the tourism team in Barbados and across all markets and attributed Barbados’ favourable performance to their development of strategic initiatives.
He said: “Several of these efforts are bearing fruit and we must press forward in this light to conclude the rest of the year with a solid performance.”
He added: “One of the pivotal elements of guaranteeing the viability of our tourism industry is ensuring that the island remains easily accessible by land and sea.
“The BTMI has worked closely with our airline partners to maintain, and even boost airlift and this has contributed in part to our favourable increases in arrivals.”
Barbados has expanded its reach in the European market as Eurowings from the Lufthansa Group launched its non-stop service between Frankfurt, Germany and Bridgetown, Barbados in October.
With thrice-weekly flights being provided, this service adds an additional 990 seats for business and leisure travellers Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until April.
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