PM: Need to Keep Tourists on the Island Longer – Barbados Today - April 23, 2010

Cruise ships visiting the island will soon be able to operate their casinos while docked in the Bridgetown Port. This is the word from Prime Minister David Thompson as he commended real estate magnet and developer of the Limegrove project in Holetown, Paul Altman, for having the vision to assist in enhancing Barbados’ tourism product.

Describing Barbados as a "once in a lifetime experience", Thompson said there was a real need to keep tourists on the island longer. "We need to look at where we want to go in terms of cruise tourism, what we are competing with. Some of the things we said we may need to agree to include allowing cruise ships to open their casinos in port, so that they would stay longer in Barbados. Even if it is just 300 passengers that want to sample the Cliff and our [other] very outstanding restaurants. "We want the ships in port longer and obviously talk to the stakeholders of potentially opening their shops longer as well. We have to do something to get the ships to stay longer and make sure that Barbadians who have tourism investments that would attract tourist out of cruise ships can benefit from it," said the Prime Minister.

He added that the Cruise Tourism Task Force is to look at all the issues and report urgently. However, he stressed that the legislation to keep ship in port longer has already been set in motion. The Prime Minister described the measure as a necessity because cruise liners offer large entertainment packages on board and they have already indicated that the sooner they get out of port the better it is for them. "We have to be realistic. This doesn’t affect Barbadians because we can’t go in the port and use the casinos, and we have our position already on casino gambling, but it is something we have to look at," said Thompson. He added that Government was now seriously looking at getting visitors into the island other than through Bridgetown. "Perhaps Speightstown could be one. And of course with a facility like this nobody is going to drive pass it, and it gives our taxi drivers the opportunity to have a much wider variety of places where they can take them," he said.

Lauding the efforts of the developers in a time when the economy was contracting, the Prime Minister said that Barbados was viewed as a high quality destination and therefore the necessary structures must be put in place to align it with that perception. "When we position ourselves there it means we have to have the product and the opportunity for persons at that level to engage in high quality shopping," he said, adding that since the 1990s, despite major refurbishment in Bridgetown, projects like Limegrove had been missing for long time.

While complimenting the developers for thinking of Holetown, Prime Minister Thompson stressed that Speightstown also held major potential and he was looking forward to similar things happening their and at other discrete sites on the island.

 

By: Davidson Bowen
davidsonbowen@barbadostoday.bb