(Barbados Nation) REDjet has had a significant impact on Barbados’ visitor arrivals from the Caribbean and Tourism Minister Richard Sealy has affirmed government’s commitment to supporting the local carrier as a result.
Sealy said the decision to throw support behind the airline was the “ direct the result” of a significant increase in visitor arrivals from the CARICOM region last year following the introduction of “the new player” into the regional airline pool.
Barbados saw a 9.5 per cent increase in arrivals from CARICOM in 2011 with over 35 percent of those visitors coming from Trinidad and Sealy insisted REDjet’s entry into the marketplace had been responsible .
“It is for that reason that the Barbados government is supporting REDjet through the Barbados Tourism Authority. We have already taken that decision and we are just working out how we are going to do it” Sealy said as he addressed local and regional journalists attending the annual CTO “State of the Industry” news conference at CTO’s Collymore Rock headquarters.
