The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) said on Wednesday the island’s booming winter tourism performance is poised to usher in an unprecedented surge in visitor arrivals between this summer and the next winter season, with multiple new airlift expansions and route launches accelerating momentum across key markets.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY on the performance of the winter season as it winds down on April 15, BHTA chairman Javon Griffith, painted a bright picture of the current season, before disclosing why it describes as even greater news of what’s to come for the rest of 2026 and early 2027.
He said: “Winter has been exceptional so far. From all reports received across the membership, it has been an extremely strong one thus far, with higher occupancies, high [average daily rates], restaurants reporting improved sales, [and] car rental firms reporting increased demand. So, it’s been a very strong winter, and we expect to have a strong finish over the next two weeks.”
While the latest figures would be available next week, he is certain that the data will show business heading in the right direction, based on discussions recently held with several members, Griffith said.
“And the load factors on flights are still quite high at the moment,” he added, attributing the level of performance to enhanced marketing efforts in the country’s source markets, particularly the United States, Canada and the UK.
“All the BTMI [Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc] markets, to be honest, have been quite active. I would have just returned from a BTMI activation in the UK and Ireland, where the team there has been putting in significant work behind next week’s launch of Aer Lingus’ Dublin-to-Barbados service. This is continuing to drive business to the destination, as well as the Behind the Gateway marketing going on, especially in the US, which is driving a lot of first-time visitors to Barbados, taking advantage of the significant growth in airlift that we have seen from that US market.”
He also attributed the increase in first-time visitors to the Delta Airlines service from Atlanta and marketing activity in Charlotte.
Griffith then turned his attention to what’s in store for Barbados this summer and beyond, pointing first to an upgraded British Airways service to the country.
“What BA is doing is that this summer, they are increasing the size of the aircraft that is operating to Barbados. They are giving us an additional 97 seats per day this summer, from August 19 July to 29, and then next winter, they are increasing Barbados to three flights a day from London – two from Heathrow and one from Gatwick. That has never happened before in our history, to have BA operating three flights a day to Barbados each day. So, that in itself is a tremendous achievement.”
The BHTA chair then reported on the outcomes of two major tourism marketing events he recently attended in Europe.
The ITB [Internationale Tourismus Börse] is one of the world’s largest travel trade shows, based in Berlin, Germany, and is similar to the World Travel Market.
Griffith said: “This really focuses on the European market. As you know, we have direct flights coming in from Germany and the Netherlands. So, it was an opportunity to meet face to face with tour operators and travel agents from that region, as we continue to build out Barbados’ case for increased airlift from that market for 2027.
“Because, what’s happening in Barbados is that next summer, we are going to be seeing cruise ships home-porting in Barbados throughout the summer; and obviously, the build-up to that means you have to ensure that persons can actually get to the destination to board these ships. So, that is something being worked on at the moment.”
As for the BTMI-UK and Ireland safari, Griffith said it started in Dublin and then the team moved on to Glasgow, Liverpool and Southampton.
“The purpose of that was to lead up to the launch of the Dublin to Barbados direct service with Aer Lingus that starts on March 31, and then also to reach out face to face with operators and agents in those key cities. Those are all cities in which Barbados has been seeing significant growth, and it’s really about enhancing that growth to continue to boost our arrivals into the destination.”
Griffith said the new BA service would be beneficial to people in the south of England, particularly Brighton, from where they can catch a train directly to Gatwick; and because it’s a daily flight, those potential visitors can take the plane and come straight to Barbados without having to go to Heathrow.
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