PM Mottley admits Barbados should be concerned about pound devaluation Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

With the value of the British pound falling to historic lows against the US dollar these days, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley says that this downward trend should spur Barbados to pivot and tweak the tourism product to attract new interests.

Speaking at today’s wrap-up of the International Monetary Fund visit press conference at Ilaro Court, she said that one of “our largest trading partners [Great Britain] is facing devaluation on a fairly rapid basis, so much so that you [the media] have asked me what I believe are the consequences for the Barbados economy given that the British account for 40 per cent of our tourism sector, and it is a matter for which we should have concern.”

She said we have to keep an eye on the ball and play strategic shots right now “including boosting our presence in other markets if necessary if we see a diminution in spending”.

However, PM Mottley hinted that the current impact may not be the most worrisome yet because, according to her, “We do have perhaps… a slightly different demographic coming here” as it relates to the type of visitors we get from that source market.

But she still asserted, “there is no doubt that everybody will be hurting and therefore we have to be prepared to open up and boost other markets to potentially offset what could happen there.”

PM Mottley said that at the groundbreaking for Hotel Indigo yesterday she told the attendees, “…That is an analogy for really and truly where we are, that we’ve taken a site that had two of Barbados’ certainly one of Barbados’ oldest hotels in Barbados south coast – Ocean View, and one of the other more mature hotels – Caribbee, and that that site is now being repurposed to serve a modern Barbados tourism sector.”

And she stressed that Bajans still must play their part in keeping our economy alive because COVID should have taught us that we cannot rely on foreigners coming to our shores and spending to drive our economic growth solely.

“We must not have amnesia in this environment and we must not believe the extent to which we have been able to insulate people means that all is well in the rest of the world. It is not. And I ask us to recall that what has brought us thus safely thus far is us operating as a single nation, with a social partnership anchored as the basis upon which many of the decisions we have taken.”

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