In an era where guests are prepared to put their opinions about destinations or products on blast, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn says it is critical that all tourism accommodations on the island meet minimum standards.
Speaking in the House of Assembly on Tuesday as he contributed to the debate on the Tourism Accommodation Bill, 2025, Straughn said that as more Barbadians offer their properties on online booking sites such as Airbnb, it was essential that these properties be registered and be of such quality that they do not compromise the overall standard of the Barbados brand.
“We have seen a number of Barbadians take deliberate steps to invest, to participate in the community tourism programme. And I encourage all Barbadians to seek the certification of the standards . . . such that they can maximise the value with respect to what they are offering,” the Christ Church East Central Member of Parliament stated.
Moreover, Straughn stressed that a brand image was based heavily on the “consumers’ opinion”, and often online reviews can be positive, but they can also be “particularly challenging”.
He stressed the Mia Mottley administration backed “community tourism” and he was giving his full support to the proposed legislation, “given that we want Barbadians to be known as a place where there’s good service and that there are good standards”.
According to the minister, those Barbadians who have invested in tourism accommodation ought to be able to derive maximum financial benefit from the investment, and so the provisions of the legislation aim to ensure that this can be achieved.
He stressed that community-based tourism was now an integral part of the tourism product, just as hotels, guest houses and villas.
Straughn told the Lower Chamber: “The reality is we are offering good service, good quality [and] anybody [from] any part of the world can come to Barbados and know that . . . once you are here, that we are offering you world-class accommodation.”
He added: “The thing that we have control over is the standard of service and the quality of the product that we are offering. . . . If we can assert positively that this is the standard that we in Barbados have to offer and that it is world-class, then whether you are a large hotel chain, or you happen to have a group, a few little small homes, or the individual who just rented out the one bedroom, attaining that standard allows you to extract maximum value.”
(IMC)
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