As Carifesta XV comes to a close in a few days, the hosting of the grand event continues to provide the island with economic benefits and invaluable international exposure.
That is according to chief executive officer of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. Andrea Franklin who said individuals from as far as mainland Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Latin and South America were in Barbados to participate in the ten-day event which ends Sunday.
Franklin said this was good for the economy and for marketing Barbados.
“Obviously, I can’t give you an idea about numbers as yet, but I know in terms of delegations we welcomed well in excess of 2 500 based on the delegates registered but in terms of the exposure for the destination obviously it showcases Barbados in terms of what we have to offer. Not only the traditional sun, sea and sand attractions that persons would normally come for but also in terms of our creative economy and the interest that we are witnessing in terms of persons turning out for the events, strong presence at the concerts, dance, drama and all of the concerts being sold out. It shows that persons are interested more so in coming to see those types of activities,” she said.
Franklin added that the international media was also playing a major role in promoting the island.
“We are hosting well in excess of 40 media from throughout the Caribbean as well as some from our emerging markets in Africa (all) here coming to witness, participate and report on our Carifesta in terms of the stories they are carrying. It really helps to tell the story of what the Barbadian experience has to offer and obviously what the wider Caribbean experience has to offer. . . .People see the Caribbean not only as Caribbean islands but as a block, an entity and all of the islands showcasing at Carifesta gives a great idea of what the Caribbean means and has to offer. The culture of the Caribbean is certainly on display here and us being at the centre of it, it really gives us a great story to tell in terms of our marketing and we have been capitalising on that through the media exposure that we have been getting,” Franklin added.
Well-known personalities
The BTMI head said the presence of well-known personalities also helps to boost the interest of many.
“We also have a number of internationally recognised persons coming to participate in various aspects of the festival, with all of them being here and through there following as well, it opens up what Barbados has to offer in terms of experiences such as this but also in terms of our capacity to host large events. . . . Things have started slow but getting into the middle of the week, things have settled down and events have been flowing and they are seeing the responses. . . .Certainly hosting events is an important part of marketing and being able to attract people to the destination,” she said.
Chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association Ryan Forde who also lauded the positive impact Carifesta has had on the island noting though that they would not be able to gauge the true effect just yet.
“I think the exposure that Carifesta has been able to give Barbados is something that I don’t think we can measure immediately. We have persons coming from as far as mainland Africa and of course we have our neighbours Latin, South and North America and our Caribbean brothers and sisters. So we are being able to see an investment into the infrastructure, that is, what we physically are seeing as well as the performances and all of the arts. The long lasting benefit for us is that the arts can continue to build and grow from a local capacity but at the same time they can keep welcoming other people that are from the arts back to the destination and obviously that then creates a domino effect. You have to fly in or boat in to the country, you have to transport, stay, spend on food and beverage, you have to spend on audio visual so it allows us to circulate money and experiences more than what we already do with Crop Over or Independence or any other period. . .and cultural festivals and cultural tourism those are areas that around the world persons are gravitating towards,” he said.
Forde said the hosting of Carifesta could have repercussions which could last beyond the ten days of the event. “If what happens during Carifesta’s ten days are as impactful as what it has been so far then we are able to say, we have this new infrastructure, we have these connections with mainland Africa, an area where in tourism we are trying to build on emerging markets. We are looking at the diaspora, we are looking at our neighbours and Latin America, so you are then able to pull at other forms of business into the destination and it also gives an export opportunity for merchants and our artisans and other artists if they want to go to other festivals or training seminars around the world. So I think so far from a Barbadian point of view, it has been good. There are things that obviously can be improved and learned on and from a tourism perspective so far things are going well . . . we would love if it was just like winter but so far it has been going well if we take a general snap shot of it and we want to see more of these kind of activations across the rest of the summer period.”
Forde said hotel occupancy numbers were projected to be positively impacted by Carifesta.
“The initial numbers we pulled at the beginning of August, looking at the books, we’ve seen an overall five per cent increase in terms of occupancy. In the smaller properties, some of them were reporting as high up as 14.4 per cent but now we are getting to the end of August we won’t know for another two weeks what our final numbers look like for August, so you are looking at anywhere between 55 to 60 per cent . . . hotel occupancy and that’s over a period that traditionally is much lower, like high forties, maybe very low fifties so it has been a positive impact to the destination and hopefully we can build on it.” (SG)
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