Two cash in on essays

Britney Sealy, a student of Trinity Academy, and Lona Whitney of The St Michael school are the two winners of this year’s annual Florida Caribbean Cruise Association Children’s Essay Competition, which was organised by the Barbados Tourism Authority.
Sealy captured first place in the junior category while Whitney won the senior category in the competition in which contestants were asked to submit essays on the topic What can my destination do to become more competitive in this global tourism market? Sealy received a prize of $400 while Whitney took home $500.
At the prize-giving ceremony at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday, Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy said that as he read the entries for the annual competition each year, he was impressed by the knowledge exhibited by both junior and senior entrants.
“This year has been no different. Topics such as the need to invest in our hotel plant, the need for expansion in sports tourism, the need to look at new markets and to attract new airlift are what essays even at the junior levels were talking about. And of course to expand upon our strengths like the friendliness of our people, the culinary flair to Barbados wealth and promoting aspects of heritage tourism and last but certainly not least we need to use more social medium in terms of attracting businesses to Barbados.”
He added: “When you are hearing that from the young people, it certainly tells us what we have to do, if we are going in the right direction and where we may have to improve or tweak in terms of thinking about the future. It is quite pointless for all of us who are responsible for tourism to put programmes in place and the young people find them completely irrelevant because they will not be sustainable . . . . none of us are here forever.” (AH)