BARBADOS TOURISM IN REVIEW:

2014 PEFORMANCE

2015 RETURNING TO GROWTH

Remarks

William Griffith

Chief Executive Officer

Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.

February 24, 2015

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Good morning ladies and gentlemen

I am honoured to be able to deliver this report today on

the tourism performance in 2014, and to be able to outline

the tangible growth prospects for 2015. I am equally

pleased to be the bearer of some positive news on behalf

of a very hard-working and dedicated team of individuals

at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.

Credit must be given to those who in anyway assisted in

paving the way for our island to be able to wrestle back

some of our market share.

Having been on the job for just shy of four months, I am

now fully immersed in my role in building the new

organization and transforming its business model in line

with the changing tourism landscape. I am very

appreciative for all the support that I have received so far

from colleagues and industry partners. Success will be

defined by the extent of the collaborative effort of

everyone in this all-important industry.

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CRUISE

As this is my first industry report I would like to break with

convention and start with our cruise performance.

Barbados welcomed 395 cruise ships in 2014 compared

to 374 in 2013 or 6 per cent more than the previous year.

There were eight inaugural calls representing 38,083

passengers in 2014, among them the third largest

passenger ship, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas,

with a capacity of 5,000.

While cruise passenger arrivals dipped by 2 per cent or

12,365 to 557,898 arrivals, we are happy to report there

were approximately 8,462 cruise stay visitors. This

represents an increase of 1,164 arrivals over 2013. The

other good news is that the majority of them chose to stay

7-10 days, followed by 2-3 days and 4-6 days.

We also maintained our home porting levels, which

continue to benefit several other sectors including

agriculture and retail.

The separation of the cruise and cargo functions at the

Port presents a great opportunity to improve the

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servicescape of the arrival area for our cruise visitors and

provides new and authentic experiences for them from the

moment they set foot on our shores.

We look forward to working with our partners at the

Barbados Port Inc. and the Barbados Tourism Product

Authority (BTPA), as well as the membership of the

Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, to enhance the

cruise value proposition.

We also continue to maintain a healthy presence at the

global cruise trade events, including the upcoming

Seatrade Miami cruise conference. Partnering with our

sister countries across the region to ensure the Caribbean

remains the world’s most desirable cruise itinerary,

remains a top priority.

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LONG STAY ARRIVALS

Now we move on to a review of our long stay arrivals in

2014. As the chairman indicated, our long stay arrivals

are up 2.2 per cent over 2013 with 11, 118 additional

visitors to the island. We consider this result very

encouraging.

December 2014 recorded the highest number of arrivals

for any given month since April 2007, when we hosted the

ICC Cricket World Cup. During that month last year there

were 61,128 visitors, an increase of 19.8 percent or

10,101 more visitors year-on-year.

The majority of visitors to Barbados in 2014, 34 per cent to

be precise, stayed 7 – 10 days and fell between the ages

of 46 and 55. This is consistent with the 2013 figures. Of

the total number of visitors, 52 per cent were female

versus 48 percent male. The majority stayed with friends

and relatives, that is, 22 per cent of all visitors, compared

to 19 per cent who chose luxury accommodation and 14

per cent who opted for the villa experience.

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UK

A granular look at our results reveals that this positive

performance was led by the United Kingdom, which

maintained its position as the top producing market for the

island. UK arrivals accounted for 37 per cent of Barbados’

arrivals in 2014 or 186,858 visitors, an increase of 11 per

cent or 18,125 more holidaymakers than in 2013.

These increases can be attributed to the UK’s improved

economic conditions, which drove up consumer

confidence. We also reaped success from several event

initiatives that targeted this market, namely the

Summertastic, Top Gear and the Soccerex programmes,

among others.

The success that our refurbished properties have had with

the UK tour operators ought to inspire other property

owners to make the requisite investments. In the end it’s

a win-win for all parties and is critical if we are to maintain

our competitiveness.

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USA

The USA continued to be the second highest producer of

business for Barbados, generating 23 per cent of our

visitors for 2014. There was a decline of 2 per cent or

2,074 fewer visitors. However, this must be compared

against a 4 per cent dip in capacity out of the USA or

10,054 fewer seats when compared to 2013.

This would have been as a direct result of the loss of

55,702 seats on American’s service out of JFK. So in

essence 82 per cent of that lost airlift capacity has now

been replaced by JetBlue, Delta and US Airways. The

Delta nonstop service from Atlanta’s Jackson International

and New York’s JFK, were among the highlights in our

efforts in this market during the last financial year.

Overall, we closed the year with 118,659 US arrivals,

which represents a 2 per cent dip year on year. It is

important to note that in December, we registered record

arrivals out of the United States when compared against

2013. This was also the third highest number of December

US arrivals on record in 14 years, eclipsed only by the

year 2009 with 14,989 arrivals and 2005, 14,775 arrivals.

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CARIBBEAN & LATIN AMERICA

Although the CARICOM market registered a loss of 9.9

per cent, it remained the third largest source market for

the island. Thirty-five per cent of the total visitors from this

region or 27,915 travellers came from Trinidad & Tobago.

Our research tells us that this decline is due to a number

of factors, including diminished spending power among

potential travellers and a 10 per cent reduction in seats via

LIAT. High airfares placed regional travel in an

uncompetitive position, in some instances, when

compared to the cost of international travel.

We are fortunate that several events continue to attract

visitors from the region to our shores including the Crop

Over Festival, Barbados Gospelfest, the Barbados

Reggae Festival and Hennessey Artistry concert, as well

as most motorsports events, which have proven to be very

popular with our Caribbean neighbours.

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Our task is to create the right packages and deals to

support this trend so that all potential Caribbean visitors

will have the incentive to visit Barbados. We will also

engage creatively with our airline partners in an attempt to

increase intra-regional travel.

Brazil

Arrivals from Brazil continue to trend very positively.

There were some great package promotions in the market

during that period, including the Barbados Island Inclusive

and a Flat Fare Sale. As a result Brazil was up 18 per

cent or 864 additional passengers year on year and this is

the highest number of arrivals we have had since the

introduction of the Gol flight. Several travel trade initiatives

were undertaken such as familiarization trips to Barbados

and agent training. We are already seeing the fruit of

these efforts and plan to do even more to grow this very

important market.

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CANADA

Initial projections showed Canadian arrivals in 2014 would

decline by 8%. Through refocused marketing efforts,

rebounding visitor demand and successful airline

negotiations, the year ended with a 2.2 per cent decline.

For the first time ever we had three weekly flights out of

Montreal and Air Canada introduced, for the first time

ever, a 270-seat B777 daily service out of Toronto.

Moreover, the team was able to successfully establish co-

op campaigns with key partners such as Air Canada

Vacations (ACV) and WestJet Vacations. They executed

a Cineplex Promotion with 15-second adverts in English

and French combined with print ads in the Cineplex

Magazine.

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EUROPE

We now turn to Europe where Barbados registered

another encouraging performance.

We are pleased to announce that Germany, the

Netherlands and Belgium are up 16%, 17% and 7%

respectively. Italy was also up 13% over 2013. This was

largely due to strong marketing to support the seat

capacity increase of 3,960 seats, or 23 per cent.

Condor’s Frankfurt service continued to be the major

direct service out of Europe. They increased their

capacity by 14 per cent or 1, 350 seats. Condor’s winter

operations were also enhanced by twice weekly flights

through to the month of April 2014, and then three weekly

flights, which commenced in November 2014.

Condor is supported by a tour operator portfolio strategy

aimed at establishing rock solid relationships with all of the

key players. We are also boosting awareness about

destination Barbados in the European market through

travel agent training using an E-Learning tool we created

in collaboration with the CTO.

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Media partnerships with wide-advertising coverage across

multiple channels and social media marketing have also

helped us to reach over 6.5 million in Germany alone.

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BARBADOS TOURISM 2015: RETURNING TO

GROWTH

We are optimistic with the about the projections so far for

2015. Preliminary figures for the month of January 2015

show that Barbados realized 56,132 visitors in total, the

highest on record in 15 years.

Arrivals out of the USA in January 2015 grew by 14 per

cent or 1, 295 additional visitors to reach a total of 10,810.

This was the highest for arrivals in January out of the USA

since 2011, when US arrivals reached 11, 968. During

that period Delta’s Atlanta service and American Airlines’

Dallas Fort Worth service were in operation.

In the UK during January 2015, there was a 15 per cent

increase in arrivals or 2, 790 more visitors. The total,

21,355 visitors, was the highest number on record of UK

visitors realized during the month of January.

In January 2015, arrivals out of Canada grew by 27 per

cent to reach 10,578, an increase of 2,238. There was

also a 23% growth in Germany and a 20% growth in

Brazilian arrivals. Trinidad and Tobago continued to

struggle with a 12% decline.

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A large part of our enthusiasm stems also from our new

marketing philosophy, which will be driven by a stronger

digital marketing consciousness than ever before. While

we are encouraged by these results we are very cognizant

that one or two great months is not the panacea. The

battle for growth and sustainability for visitor arrivals will

not be won solely by winter performances. It will require

greater effort and more targeted marketing activity in the

summer and fall months.

In addition to a proposed new destination website by the

end of this fiscal year, I am pleased to announce the

appointment of a new director of marketing effective

March 2. We want to acknowledge today the presence of

Mr. Robert Chase, a young man who has an extensive

working background in e-marketing; possesses a

Bachelor’s degree in Management (with honours) and

holds a master’s degree (with distinction) in e-commerce

all at my alma mater the University of the West Indies. I

wish Robert well and have warned him that a few

sleepless nights are not far away. We will be placing an ad

in the coming week for a manager of digital marketing and

social media. This new role will further augment that

Marketing Department and represents a fundamental

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change in our strategy to transform our business model

from one focused on traditional media and advertising.

The marketing department will be responsible for all of

Barbados’ online real estate and managing our digital

reputation. They will also coordinate the brand advertising

and marketing strategy consistently across all markets.

Brilliant Barbados

We are also delighted to announce today the launch of a

new tactical destination promotion, Brilliant Barbados,

which has been created with excellent support from our

BHTA partners.

The Brilliant Barbados promotion, which will commence in

early March, offers the first night free on a four-night stay

for the US, Canada and the Caribbean markets, and the

first two nights free on a seven-night stay for the UK

market, Europe and Latin America.

The booking window will be open from early March for five

weeks, with travel to be completed between May 9 and

December 19, 2015.

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Participants will also receive a 25% attractions discount

card to be used at participating entities; and a Re-

Discover dining voucher will be given to each person on

arrival, among other benefits. We are pleased that

approximately 30 hotels have signed on to participate so

far in this campaign, and the marketing promotions will be

tailored for each source market.

The objective of this tactical promotion is clearly to drive

incremental business in that traditionally softer period of

the year that we mentioned earlier.

CRUISE

Projections for 2015 paint a vivid picture of growth and

new business for cruise tourism. Overall arrivals are

projected to increase by over 5-6 per cent to produce

close to 750,000 arrivals.

Home porting activity will rebound with a projected

increase of 17 cent over 2014.

In addition, 12 new vessels calling at the Port of

Bridgetown during 2015/ 16 season will contribute

177,551 passengers towards overall capacity.

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LONG STAY ARRIVALS

USA

When we look at our global prospects for growth, it is clear

that the US has the greatest potential for Barbados. It is

the fastest growing region in global travel and its

economic conditions are expected to continue on a

positive upward trajectory.

We anticipate seeing tangible improvements from the

efforts of our US team, ably led by our new Director USA

Market, Petra Roach, in 2015. Additional airlift planned

into Barbados via the extension of the second JetBlue

service from JFK, and a twice-weekly nonstop Delta

service out of JFK and Atlanta, were launched in

December. We are already setting programmes in place

to make sure we fill those seats.

Some of the initiatives they have planned for the US

market include:

providing irresistible incentives to 6,000 luxury travel

agents trained in our Barbados Elite Club

programme.

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reviving our relationship with Virtuoso, which will

provide us with access to 8,900 of the most powerful

luxury travel advisors in the world – an initiative that

also stands to enhance our Canadian business

prospects.

We are also pursuing the culinary tourism niche by

showcasing Barbados’ local chefs at major gateways

to strengthen our position as the culinary capital of

the Caribbean.

Barbados recently embarked on a CBS radio promotion in

the tri-state area with JetBlue’s contribution and we plan to

replicate this initiative in support of the Delta Atlanta

service. Some of these initiatives will be extended across

our other markets, where feasible, as a part of our global

marketing strategy.

UK

In the UK, we will be defending our airlift astutely through

strategic partnerships with key industry players, while

developing creative travel concepts for would-be visitors

around our extensive sports and cultural calendar.

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Notwithstanding that, our team is exploring new events

and alliances to keep our product offering fresh in this very

mature source market.

We will also be exploiting opportunities to offer greater

value for money, e.g. via the Re-Discover card and

building on our relationship with our partners at the

Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) through

programmes such as Connect BGI. We want to wish our

newly appointed Director UK, Cheryl Carter, great

success. Many of these initiatives will also be run in

Europe.

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CANADA

Our strategy, led by our newly appointed Director of

Canada, Peter Mayers, will continue to advocate for the

inclusion of additional Barbadian hotels and ancillary

services by our elite tour operator partners.

Two days before Valentine’s Day WestJet ran a

successful viral campaign promoting Barbados’ romance

product, which generated over 1.4 million views on

YouTube. We will be working with Sandals through their

relationship with Air Canada Vacations (ACV) to help to

spread the word about Barbados as a preferred

destination for romance. Indeed, we will be attempting to

leverage this partnership across all markets to engage

media and tour operators to create unique value

propositions.

Research has also confirmed that we have strong

prospects in reaching multigenerational travelers in

Canada and we will be reaching out to them using a

summer villa promotion. Sports, affinity groups, culture

and heritage, and MICE niche marketing will also be used

to help drive up our Canadian arrivals.

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EUROPE

Team BTMI will be implementing a strong digital

marketing campaign through partners such as Expedia,

Trivago, TripAdvisor and Unister in order to push sales.

These and other Internet travel publishers will be used to

help us to reach millions of potential visitors to our shores.

In France sales missions will be held on the outskirts of

Paris in cities that fit our desired demographic profile –

high incomes and good access to our British Airways

Condor services.

We will invest significantly in increasing awareness about

Barbados throughout Europe via road shows, fam trips

with A-list media and bloggers, E-learning programmes for

travel agents, and participating in strategic travel trade

conferences.

However, the primary focus across Europe will be on

digital marketing and online sweepstakes through

Facebook in particular, which has great potential for a

return on our marketing dollars and bodes well for us as

we seek to reduce the seasonality of our markets.

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CARIBBEAN

Despite the challenges we still have high hopes for the

Caribbean market. Our team has already started

assessing our market position and the ways we can

enhance Barbados’ image as an aspirational and

attainable destination. We are also considered a mecca

for successful, well-designed and produced events and we

will be working with our airline and tour operator partners

in the region to offer packages around these events.

The high cost of airfare continues to be a concern and we

are exploring creative promotional options.

There will be strategic partnerships with key influential

individuals and associations with extensive databases of

potential visitors. Our emphasis will be on attracting

regional sports events, as well as the MICE market.

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BRAZIL

In Brazil, our travel trade activities are in the advanced

planning stage with a travel agent incentive programme

set to come on stream in the near future. Fam trips and

agent training will be combined with chances to win prize

trips to Barbados. We will continue to work with major

tour operators and media professionals as well to ensure

we continue to grow our arrivals out of this important

region. Luxury, sports, MICE, romance and educational

travel are all niches that our research has suggested we

must pursue aggressively in the Brazilian market. We will

also be exploring potential business outside of the

traditional Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo hubs.

These are exciting times for Barbados’ tourism.

While many of these initiatives have proven successful for

Barbados through the years, the difference going forward

will be an increased use of research and measurement to

assess our strategic positions.

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At present the Immigration form provides trends and

visitor analysis, but visitor segmentation analysis is the

next step to understand the types of people that are

traveling to Barbados so that we can focus time, energy

and dollars in the most relevant areas.

Segmentation analysis will help BTMI to quantify, locate

and understand who are its current high potential and

prospective visitors.

BTMI will have an in-depth description that will provide

more insight on how to reach consumers with the right

message and product offering.

This amplified research strategy, and our flexibility as an

organization to respond to rapidly changing market

conditions, speaks to a new era in marketing for

Barbados’ tourism.

Our goal is to complete the transition plan for the new

BTMI entity by the end of year 2015. We are also rapidly

building a rhythm in pursuing our new mandate; while

overcoming inherited challenges and fulfilling inherited

commitments.

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We look forward to collaborating with all of our partners to

maximize our limited budgets toward achieving greater

things for our vital tourism sector. We would also like to

point out that all sponsorship partnership requests will be

assessed primarily on a set criteria for a return on

investment (ROI) that targets visitor arrivals.

The prospects for destination Barbados look very healthy

and we are ready to regain our market share and

accomplish new milestones in 2015 and beyond.

Thank you.

I now hand you back over to Neville who will chair the

question and answer session.

BARBADOS TOURISM IN REVIEW:

2014 PEFORMANCE

2015 RETURNING TO GROWTH

Remarks Alvin Jemmott Chairman Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. February 24, 2015

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Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It is with great

pleasure that I welcome you to today’s news conference,

a performance review of the Barbados tourism sector in

2014.

We want to extend a special welcome to the members of

the media for joining us as we take this opportunity to

highlight the major achievements of our 2014 performance

and to reveal some of the strategic initiatives we have

planned for promoting this wonderful destination,

Barbados, in 2015.

The year 2014 was a period of marked recovery for

Barbados’ tourism sector. At the end of December visitor

arrivals were up 2.2 per cent year-on-year, due in no small

part to strong economic recovery and improved consumer

confidence in traditional and emerging source markets.

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The World Tourism Organization (WTO) announced

recently that there were some 978 million international

travellers in 2014, an increase of 4.7 per cent or 45 million

tourists more than the previous year. All of our key source

markets showed positive signs of growth and this augurs

well for the future growth of the Barbados tourism sector

from 2015 onwards.

The Caribbean benefitted significantly from this increase

with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) reporting

an average growth of 4.9 per cent across 28 reporting

territories.

In 2014 Barbados’ tourism arrivals grew by 2.2 per cent. It

is the first positive sign of growth in two years and all

industry partners must be commended for playing their

respective parts to get us to this point.

This is admirable considering that our destination is one of

the more mature holiday spots in the region, with a very

high repeat visitor rate. It also comes against the

background that there was a projection of a 4 per cent

decline in arrivals for the year back in December 2013.

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According to the Central Bank of Barbados visitor

expenditure for the first three quarters of the 2014 stood at

11.7% of total real GDP. It is estimated that Barbados

earns over $4 billion in foreign exchange earnings, with

some 15,100 or 12% of all employed persons working in

the hotels and restaurants across the island.

In the cruise sector we were able to secure 557,898

passengers. Home porting activity was 5 per cent below

the previous year due to a decrease in call s across

various lines. However, we welcomed 395 cruise ships,

an increase of 21 vessels when compared to 2013. Over

the past six months, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.

(BTMI) has sought to build on the momentum of its

predecessor, so that the transition into the new

organization thus far can be characterized as a

continuum.

However, it is by no means business as usual, as we are

very keen on establishing a new marketing philosophy that

appropriately matches our current digital age.

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Likewise, our efforts to formulate a winning global team to

market brand Barbados continue unabated. In due course

we believe we will have an appropriate mixture of solid

experience and new media insight that can carry the

organizational strategy toward developing and enhancing

our tourism sector for generations to come.

Even in the face of this transition, we are keeping our

sights on the major targets set before us. Shortly you will

hear of our plans for 2015, which are guided by our

commitment:

- To diversify our tourism source markets and reduce

our vulnerability to shocks in any given region.

- To reduce the seasonality by adjusting our marketing

strategies across booking periods

- To deepen strategic partnerships with key travel

industry players to simplify the booking process for

potential visitors

- To pursue an integrated marketing approach to

ensure the implementation of successful initiatives

and lessons learned across all of our source markets.

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In addition, our long-term goals are still rooted in a desire

to break down the language barriers in pursuing new

categories of visitors, and providing new tourism products

that can attract the next generation of travellers. With

regards to the latter, we are working closely with our sister

entity, the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA).

We are committed to balancing these objectives against

our current targets to ensure the sustainability of this vital

industry.

We make bold to say that already we are seeing the fruit

of the decision to shift our tourism marketing strategy into

the hands of a company. This new structure allows us to

be nimble, to be quick in responding to market shifts and

to set a new paradigm based on fiscal prudence.

We ask that you support team BTMI as they move forward

into this new frontier for the good of Barbados’ tourism.

I now hand you over to the CEO, William Griffith, who will

share the detailed highlights of our 2014 performance and

a long-lens view into our strategic plans for 2015.

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I thank you.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BARBADOS’ TOURISM RETURNS TO GROWTH PATH ~Local tourism grew for first time in two years by 2.2 per cent ~

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS. February 24, 2015 – Barbados’ tourism sector has begun to show signs of growth. In 2014 long stay visitor arrivals increased for the first time in two years by 2.2 percent to 519,638 visitors, compared to the previous year. Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), Alvin Jemmott, explained that while there was still some way to go to restore all of the market share lost during the past few years, it was encouraging news for the destination. “This is admirable considering that our destination is one of the more mature holiday spots in the region, with a very high repeat visitor rate. It also comes against the background that there was a projection of a four per cent decline in arrivals for the year back in December 2013.” Tourism is still the best hope for Barbados’ economic recovery, as it generates some 12 per cent of the island’s foreign exchange earnings, which are estimated at $4 billion. There was also a record-breaking number of arrivals in December 2014 when Barbados welcomed 56,132 long stay visitors, the highest on record in any given month since the April 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup. BTMI CEO, William Griffith, explained that the growth in arrivals was due largely to marked economic recovery and growing consumer confidence in the United Kingdom. Barbados’ UK arrivals grew by 11 per cent in 2014 to reach 186,858 visitors or 37 per cent of Barbados’ total arrivals.

- more - In the United States market, he revealed that visitor arrivals declined by two per cent in 2014. Thus far, the BTMI has been able to replace 82 per cent of the 55,702 seats lost after the withdrawal of the American Airlines service out

MEDIA CONTACT: NEVILLE BOXILL SENIOR DIRECTOR, SUPPORT SERVICES

BARBADOS TOURISM MARKETING INC. 1

ST FLOOR WARRENS OFFICE COMPLEX

WARRENS ST. MICHAEL

of JFK. In addition, December was a record month for the US market, with 14,460 arrivals, the third highest number of December arrivals from the USA to date. The Canadian market, which was predicted to finish at 8 per cent below the 2013 performance, was down by two per cent at the end of 2014. The Caribbean market experienced a 10 per cent decline in seats via regional carrier, LIAT; diminished spending power among potential visitors; and high airfares that, Griffith argued ‘placed regional travel in an uncompetitive position, in some instances, when compared to the cost of international travel.” Overall, the Caricom market registered a decline of 9.9 per cent in arrivals. Of note, the European market continued to maintain double-digit growth in 2014. Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium were up 15 per cent, 17 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. Italy was also up 13 per cent over 2013. Similarly, arrivals out of Brazil were up by 18 per cent. The cruise tourism sector registered a two per cent decline in arrivals to reach 557,898 arrivals and home porting activity was five per cent below the previous year due to a decrease in calls across various lines. However, we welcomed 395 cruise ships, an increase of 21 vessels when compared to 2013. There were 1,164 more cruise stay visitors than in the previous year, with the majority choosing to stay 7-10 days. 2015 Predicted as ‘Year of Growth’ Building on the successful growth of the previous year, Barbados’ tourism arrivals are projected to increase by five per cent in 2015. Also for the year the island has recorded strong levels of visitor arrivals with preliminary figures showing January 2015 being the highest on record for the past 15 years with 56,132 arrivals. The USA grew by 14 per cent to 10,810, the highest on record since 201. The UK increased by 15 per cent or 2,790 more visitors to a total of 21,355 visitors and Canada made a significant jump of 27 percentage points to reach 10,578 visitors. To ensure that this growth is sustained in 2015, the BTMI will be combining a new digital marketing strategy and a deeper reliance on research with a new nimble business structure and several collaborative marketing programmes reach their targets.

- more - A new programme dubbed, Brilliant Barbados, has been designed “to drive incremental business in the traditionally softer period of the year”. Griffith said.

“The battle for growth and sustainability for visitor arrivals will not be won solely by winter performances. It requires greater effort and more targeted marketing activity in the summer and fall months”. He added. The booking window for the Brilliant Barbados promotion will open from early March for five weeks and travel will be required between May 9 and December 19, 2015. Thirty participating hotels and a number of local attractions have come on board to offer visitors discounts. In addition, strong alliances are already being formed with several online travel agencies, tour operators and local industry partners to increase Barbados marketing presence at key gateways. The BTMI’s CEO also announced the appointment of a new Director Marketing, Robert Chase, who has a master’s degree in e-commerce. His department will hold responsibility for brand advertising, marketing strategy and the BTMI’s online real estate. Additionally, the BTMI will begin the recruitment process for a manager of digital marketing and social media. It is anticipated that all new hires will be in position by the end of the year. Cruise is also projected to be buoyant with a five to six per cent increase expected to push cruise arrivals over the 750,000 mark by the end of 2015. Home porting is set to increase by 17 per cent this year and 12 new vessels calling the Bridgetown port will contribute an additional 177,551 passengers. Among the niche markets the BTMI will be focusing its marketing dollars on are the luxury, meetings and incentives (MICE), culinary and romance markets. Sports and festivals are also expected to factor heavily going forward. Griffith concluded by stating that the island was poised to regain market share and accomplish new milestones in 2015 and beyond.

- ENDS -