Sealy highlights new tourism ‘milestone’

BARBADOS ENJOYED ITS BEST tourism season in decades and yesterday Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy said the island “soared to a new milestone in 2015”.

Addressing members of the media and top tourism officials in the private and public sectors, Sealy revealed that 2015 arrival numbers transcended 2007 which previously held the highest record of 570 000 visitors.

During the session at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Sealy provided stakeholders with a detailed assessment of his ministry’s performance. He said the United Kingdom market continued to dominate as the leading source market for Barbados, contributing 36.8 per cent of all arrivals.  British arrivals in 2015 grew by 14.1 per cent compared to 2014.

Visitors from the United States represented a quarter of all arrivals to Barbados or 148 165 visitors and that market improved by almost 25 per cent.

Canada proved to be an important source market for Barbados with 74 512 arrivals, while regionally increases of 5.8 per cent were recorded for Trinidad and Tobago and 13.1 per cent for other Caribbean countries.

When it came to length of stay, the Tourism Minister revealed that during 2015, there was an increase in all categories of lengths of stay with the exception of those staying for between 15 to 21 days.

The majority of visitors coming to the island stayed four to seven days and eight to 14 days. Some 67 per cent of all visitors to the country spent between four and 14 days on the island. (GE)