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| Sandals, Barbados // Photo by Joe Pike |
Richard Sealy, Barbados' minister of tourism and international transport, recently announced that 2015 was a record year for Barbados tourism.
Long stay arrivals grew by 13.7 percent to reach 591,892, the highest on record. The United Kingdom. remained Barbados’ no. 1 source market, contributing 37 percent of business with a year on year increase of 14.1 percent.
The U.S. market, which represented 25 percent of international visitor arrivals, grew by 25 percent.
Barbados’ growth strategy focused heavily on the diversification of their source markets, including establishing new gateways out of Boston via JetBlue Airways; Bogota, Colombia through Avianca; and a new Thomas Cook service out of Glasgow.
The island’s tourism industry also benefitted in 2015 from the introduction of a twice weekly Delta Air Lines service out of Atlanta and New York, and the switch by Air Canada to a B777 aircraft.
In addition, Barbados shone in the region as the first international destination to receive JetBlue’s new Mint Service, which has since been extended to a once weekly year-round service.
The minister also revealed that the new all-inclusive Sandals Barbados, as well as the new Sugar Bay all-inclusive resort, contributed roughly 380 more rooms to the island’s room inventory during the year and contributed in a great way to the increase in new long stay arrivals.
The Sandals property is set to construct an additional 220 rooms in 2016, while the new Beaches resort will commence construction at the site of the Almond Beach Resort later this year.
Visit www.visitbarbados.org