Barbados is going after the sports tourism market as it seeks to bolster the less popular summer months.
This was outlined by the chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) Shelly Williams while presenting in the Well of Parliament as debate continued on the Appropriation Bill, 2024.
Some $21.53 million has been budgeted for the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, and this was the focus of attention on Friday.
Williams highlighted the PGA multi-year agreement with Barbados that adds the island to the PGA Tour tournaments. She also drew attention to the partnership with the Barbados Royals T20 team.
“We just had our Sailing Week, we are now going to have our fishing tournament that is going to bring in 45 fishing vessels from around the Caribbean. Some will fly in and some will come in with their boats. That event plays host to about 800 persons,” Williams said. “We will also be seeing surfing. We have partnered with the World Surfing League to have a QS 5000, which is the highest ranking qualifying series before you can get into the world championship of surfing.”
According to the BTMI chairman: “We are the first Caribbean island to be able to offer such. This event is normally done in Hawaii and California, and Barbados is going to be playing host to some of the world-class surfers. That is going to happen in March. . . and there are almost 850 persons coming.”
“We know that we have World Cup Cricket and we have motor racing. You are going to see that every month we are pushing sports tourism.”
The top BTMI official explained that the agency was utilising [shared resources] from the Ministry of Sports to assist the agency with promoting Barbados as a sporting destination among college sports administrators.
Adding to the discussion, Minister of Tourism and International Transport Ian Gooding-Edghill highlighted the importance of Barbadian sporting heroes such as Sir Garfield Sobers.
In that regard, he cited the involvement of cricket legends Joel Big Bird Garner and Collis King who were in the Barbados Pavilion at the last World Travel Market.
Gooding-Edghill described the response to the two globally known cricketers as “huge”. (IMC1)
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