Thursday, March 28, 2024

Blame BTA

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JAZZ PROMOTER Gilbert Rowe says tourism authorities must shoulder the blame for the cancellation of the 2011 Barbados Jazz Festival.
Rowe is pointing the finger directly at the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA), which he said had so far failed to reveal the whole truth about the chain of events that led to the decision by organisers, GMR Tours Inc., to call off next year’s staging.
He added the BTA needed to explain why it was not forthcoming this year with its traditional cash injection.
In a candid interview with the SUNDAY SUN, Rowe pointed out that while other sponsors were fully on board, the BTA had only expressed an interest in assisting with international marketing. He also charged that they were late in communicating their decision to the organisers.
“The truth is that we approached the BTA, as is customary, from as early as February 2010 [but] we never received an answer from the BTA until August 2010 indicating that it would only be providing marketing support,” Rowe said.
He said GMR Tours was further notified by the BTA in November that “the board had unanimously agreed that the only support that would have been extended to the producers of the festival is the international marketing of the festival”.
But when contacted last night, BTA president David Rice said it was unreasonable for Rowe to lay blame at the feet of the Authority, which he said “was and is still willing to render support to the festival but not in the same way it was done in the past”.
Marketing
He said the BTA, which had been supporting the festival to the tune of more than $1/2 million, was particularly interested in providing marketing in all markets and across media for the event, which attracted about 400 visitors to the island last year.
But Rice said “the deal-breaker” this year was Rowe’s outright refusal to provide the board with copies of the contracts to artistes; therefore, the BTA was not in a position to see how its monies were being spent.
He also defended the BTA’s spending this year on other events, such as the inaugural Food And Wine Festival, saying, “we know where every penny has been spent”.
Rice further rejected as “disingenuous”, suggestions that the jazz festival was being made to suffer due to the fact that it was a “Black” event both in terms of organisation and attendance. (KJ)

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