The 41st edition of Caribbean Travel Marketplace kicked off
this week in Barbados, a truly historical event since this is the first time
Barbados has been given the opportunity to host.
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) is
holding the event only six months after last year’s Caribbean Travel
Marketplace, which was a huge success hosted by Puerto Rico. This year’s event took
place at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The event featured the second year of the Caribbean Travel
Forum, which was started last year to focus on the economics of tourism in the
Caribbean, with discussions on topics that include sustainability,
intra-Caribbean travel, the growing air demand and connectivity concerns.
The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, gave the
keynote address while Nicola Madden-Greig, President of the CHTA, delivered her
State of the Region and Industry address. Madden-Greig said there were “currently
more than 770 delegates registered, representing 50 countries,” with attendees
including buyers, media and potential investors from all over the world.
The 2023 Caribbean Travel Marketplace. (Photo Credit: Maura Lee-Byrne)
Tourism officials from Barbados spoke about their mission to
continuously evolve its tourism product, with the Minister of Tourism and
International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill, sharing that the island nation
has been in discussion with Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. The
countries targeted were categorized as “strategic markets” due to their vast
potential to grow the future number of visitors to Barbados.
During the Jamaica press conference, Madden-Grieg announced
the exciting news that Jamaica has been honored as the chosen destination to
host next year’s 2024 Caribbean Travel Marketplace. No exact date was
announced, but she did say it would be held in the spring.
A few other key Barbados highlights were:
- By the end of the summer period, Barbados will recover 90
percent of the airline seats it had in 2019.
- JetBlue will land an additional 12,500 seats in Barbados, as
the airline will double the daily service from New York during the summer period.
- Air Canada will add an additional 8,850 seats during the
period May to October, and WestJet will commence twice weekly services from
mid-July to October 2023.
- Condor is returning to Barbados in the winter season with a
bigger aircraft containing 310 seats.
- The winter 2022/2023 cruise season saw a remarkable recovery
of 86 percent when compared to pre-pandemic levels, and during the winter
season (September 2022 to April 2023), the island received 360 calls and a
total of 615,445 passengers.
- Upcoming hotel developments include Wyndham Grand Resort
(2023), Hotel Indigo (2024) and Pendry Hotels & Resorts (2026).
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