Showing posts with label Tourism in Barbados. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourism in Barbados. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

BARBADOS: Sandals Royal Barbados Will Open Dec 20th

Sandals Royal Barbados will open in time for the upcoming winter season, for a total of 502 rooms in Barbados, says Sandals Resorts International Chairman Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart.

Sandals Royal Barbados is the brand’s second hotel on the island, adjacent to Sandals Barbados in the famed St. Lawrence Gap area on Dover Beach.

“Sandals Royal Barbados is progressing as it should and will most certainly be open and ready to welcome its first guests, as promised, on Dec. 20,” said Stewart, adding that the new resort is a “game changer” for the company.

Sandals Royal Barbados will offer 222 concierge and butler-level suites, including the brand’s signature Rondovals, Millionaire Butler Suites and Skypool Suites, along with an extensive Crystal Lagoon Pool Complex including Swim-Up Suites.

Amenities will include the brand’s very first gentlemen’s only barber shop, a full-service 15,000 square foot Red Lane Spa, four bars offering unlimited premium spirits and five signature dining establishments including French, Caribbean and Mediterranean cuisines, as well as new American and Asian-fusion concepts.

Anticipation is high for the new resort, says William ‘Billy’ Griffith, CEO of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI). An established brand such as Sandals inspires great confidence in Barbados as a destination as we promote our island’s diverse, high calibre product offerings around the world.

We are certain that this latest addition to our product profile will bring even more benefits to our tourism economy and we anticipate that this will augment our marketing efforts in all of our major source markets.

New developments like Sandals Royal Barbados will go a long way to keep Barbados fresh and top-of-mind with potential holidaymakers, with the assurance that they will still have a safe and unforgettable holiday, said Griffith: Huge kudos to our friends at Sandals.

Sandals Royal Barbados will also introduce the brand’s first-ever rooftop infinity pool, complete with La Parisienne French restaurant and a poolside bar, as well as an entertainment pavilion featuring a four-lane bowling alley, living room and game room that Stewart says were designed to foster on-demand entertainment, available as the customer wishes.

For guests in select top category suites, Sandals Royal Barbados will also introduce chauffeured Rolls-Royce airport transfers. Also new to Sandals Resorts and debuting here, The Beach House Resort Shop, a new retail brand curated to bring together the elements of the Caribbean featuring sophisticated resort wear, home goods, local craft and provisions.

Luxury is really about customization and personalization, and that’s what our new approach to entertainment is all about,says Stewart. We’ll continue to have set shows but we’re exploring new ways for guests to gather and have fun according to their schedule.

The resort will also debut a 6,000 square foot conference facility equipped with state-of-the-art technology.

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

BARBADOS: Minister Of Tourism Richard Sealy Says Tourism Booming

Barbados tourism has high tourist arrivals.

Word of this from Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy who was speaking to the media during a break of the opening session of the 31st annual sales conference of the Caribbean Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (CARAIFA), at Hilton Barbados this morning.

Sealy said the country was seeing the results of the marketing and other efforts from the relevant arms of his ministry and boasted that as of the end of April arrivals were up by 8.2 per cent over the same period last year.

Sealy did not give figures, but air arrivals for January to March stood at 192 298.

All Barbadians should feel proud to know that in 2016, the 50th year of our nationhood more people came to Barbados than at any time in our history.

The point is that we still have something very special that people from outside of Barbados want a part of,Sealy said.

About 300 delegates from about 11 Caribbean countries are in Barbados for the conference which runs through Wednesday.

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.

Barbados tourist arrivals from January to October this year exceeded those for the same period last year. Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy, speaking last night during the launch of Tourism Week 2011 at George Washington House, St Michael, said there had also been increases in stay-over visitors, cruise passengers and CARICOM arrivals.

Despite the global recession, Barbados’ tourism industry is holding its own. Stay-over visitor arrivals for the period January to October 2011 were 465 275. This represented an increase of 7.2 per cent over the previous year, he said.

Sealy also said cruise passenger arrivals for the same period increased by 3 483 this year for a total of 463 663 arrivals while visitors from Trinidad and Tobago showed an increase of 31.2 per cent for a total of 3 773 arrivals.