BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, March 1, 2010 – Barbados has made further progress in its bid to penetrate the French Caribbean with major Martinique tour operator, FOYAL Tours, scheduled to launch a charter between the two islands for the Easter and summer periods.
The Easter charter will run for two four-night periods, from March 27th to April 1st and then from April 1st to 5th, utilizing a 48-seater aircraft provided by Air Antilles Express. Following their highly subscribed summer charter in 2009, FOYAL Tours has also scheduled five seven-night charter flights utilizing a 70-seater Air Caraïbes aircraft from July 20th to August 24th.
The new service will complement the existing airlift to the island offered by LIAT. In addition, it will bring further expansion to the island’s business from Martinique, which grew by 3.1 per cent in 2009 over the previous year.
FOYAL head, Guy Leocadie, endorsed Barbados as a preferred destination for his clients, particularly families, and anticipates the market will grow with the right airlift mix.
“2009 has been a success and we expect that the good partnerships we experience with all the operators in Barbados and above all with the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) will help us to fight with economical situation giving us a chance to confirm this trend in 2010,” Leocadie said.
BTA business development manager in the Caribbean and Latin America department, Stacey Hutchinson, described the new service as vital as the island seeks to increase arrivals out of the Caribbean.
“Martinique is growing in its importance as a tourism source market for Barbados and we are grateful for this additional airlift as it presents a great opportunity for us in terms of increased visitor inflows and expenditure especially during these times of economic downturn,” she said.
She added that Barbados’ ability to garner new airlift in these difficult times is testimony to the island’s ability to deliver the level of return on investment that travel trade partners have come to expect.
“This charter programme symbolizes a major display of confidence in the destination as it follows on the heels of the very successful summer charter programme to Barbados in July/August 2009, which was also operated by the same tour operator. Given the great potential of the French West Indies market, this will be a wonderful boost for tourism in Barbados as we will become more accessible to Martiniquan travelers,” Hutchinson said.
In 2009, the BTA partnered with FOYAL Tours on an advertising campaign on Antilles Télévision to promote the summer charter program. FOYAL Tours will once again be advertising the programme on TV. The charter programmes also will be heavily promoted during the upcoming trade show, Salon du Voyage et des Vacances, which takes place at the Madiana Convention Centre March 5th to 7th.
Hutchinson emphasized the BTA’s commitment to targeting the French West Indies market through ensuring that the relevant travel partners are fully equipped with the knowledge of our tourism product and creative selling tools. By extension, she urged local industry partners to “continue to offer the highest level of service to ensure that our visitors have the best experience”.
Source: Caribbean360