Sports tourism plan for hotels

Barbados’ small hotels are looking to sports tourism to help pull them out of the declining occupancies they are currently experiencing.
Chairman of the Intimate Hotels of Barbados, Renee Coppin, said average occupancies for hotels in the umbrella group fell from 78 per cent in January, to 31 per cent in June, a “worrying  downward trend” which the body was trying to arrest with certain initiatives.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Intimate Hotels of Barbados at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday, the chairman said the Intimate Hotels would be partnering  with a private entity to create a brand called Intimate Sports to create an annual calendar of sporting events.
She said  three major sporting events were being planned for the first year of the partnership programme, and it was hoped these would  generate at least 5000 visitors for the small hotels. (GC)