Youth step up as future tourism leaders

Barbados is banking on its brightest young minds to help shape the future of its vital tourism industry, as students from across the island vie for the coveted title of Junior Minister of Tourism in a revitalised national competition.

The next generation of tourism ambassadors took centre stage on Tuesday as the 2025 edition of the Barbados Tourism Youth Congress got underway.

Formerly known as the Junior Minister of Tourism Competition, the contest – organised by the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) – aims to select the island’s Junior Minister of Tourism for 2025–26. The congress is open to public and private secondary school students aged 14 to 17.

Marsha Armstrong, programme officer at BTMI, described the contest as much more than a speaking competition: “Selected tourism topics prepared by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) are given to our students beforehand to research. Participants are then challenged to compile and organise that information and present it in an engaging and effective manner during the competition. In addition to the research topic, a mystery topic impromptu question is given to the participants to test their knowledge about their island, Barbados.”

This year, the BTMI received 18 entries from 12 secondary schools across the island, a marked increase in participation over the past three years. Among the entries, six students served as alternates. Daryll Jordan Secondary School also made its debut in the competition.

Senator Roshanna Trim delivered the keynote address. (SB)

Eleven students were selected to compete in this year’s event, with Armstrong also noting that the BTMI’s Product Development Department coordinated a number of pre-competition activities to prepare both students and teachers for the national stage.

During her feature address, newly appointed Government Senator Roshanna Trim—who has served as prime minister of the Barbados National Youth Parliament and president of the Barbados Youth Development Council—encouraged the young competitors to embrace their role as leaders, regardless of their age or current visibility.

She said: “Even when there is no spotlight on you, even when your work seems unseen or unheralded, you always have the power to change course and shape your own story, and indeed the story of Barbados. Leadership is not always born from grand gestures or loud applause. Sometimes it begins quietly in rooms like this, in spaces like this, at competitions like this, where young people decide to step forward, to speak out, to use their voice, to trust their vision, and not wait for validation.”

Senator Trim underscored the value of steady, quiet commitment to change, pointing to real-world examples of transformation in Barbados—from the greening of the island’s public transport fleet to the ban on single-use plastics and the rebirth of Sam Lord’s Castle into the Wyndham Grand.

She said: “These changes did not come because somebody waited for approval, it did not come because somebody wanted applause, it wasn’t about the perfect moment…. It really came from people who dared to see, dared to do, dared to start, dared to keep going, and dared to challenge the norms as we already know it.” (SB)

The post Youth step up as future tourism leaders appeared first on Barbados Today.

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