Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean are too dependent on arrivals for tourists to engage in their tourism offerings and it is time for regional countries to explore the possibilities of virtual tourism.President of the Caribbean Development Bank Dr. Hyginus Leon delivered this analysis during a presentation on Transforming Regional Connectivity: The Role of the Private Sector in Financing Intra-Regional Travel on Caribbean Aviation Day on Wednesday, during the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO)/International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Grand Cayman.Leon said the Caribbean had to come up with alternative and creative ways to maintain the demand of their tourism product and stop solely relying on the traditional arrival model to generate revenue from the industry.“Is the issue of arrivals the holy grail of saving our tourism problem? . . .How many times have we thought about what exactly is the definition of tourism? We are stuck in the line that says tourism is visiting the Caribbean and enjoying ourselves - sun, sand, sea, good hotel, food, drink and that is tourism,” he said. “Tourism in its native sense is simply the sharing of an indigenous nature character that you have with somebody else. It is indigenous to you, they don’t have it but they would like to experience it. That is tourism.
