Black Immigrant Daily News
Chief executive officer of the Grantley Adams International Airport, Hadley Bourne is reporting high volumes of passengers coming to Barbados.
“It’s January 2023, but we’re still in the winter season, which runs from November to March, and although this is usually our high-traffic period, we haven’t seen high arrivals like this for approximately three years,” Bourne said, while noting heightened traffic in 2022.
“Using the UK as an example, our arrivals from this territory in 2022 were 26 080, which exceeds our 2018 arrivals of 24 994.
Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Ian Gooding-Edghill, also referenced these figures when announcing that “Barbados’ tourism rebound is strong” in a recent press conference.
When questioned if GAIA was equipped to manage heavy passenger traffic, Bourne advised that they used the slower period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to make structural and organisational advancements in anticipation of increased visitors to the island.
“We’ve upgraded our airline check-in infrastructure, which encourages a smoother flow and processing of the passenger. This results in a more relaxed passenger. A relaxed passenger is likelier to patronize the airport shops, thereby contributing to foreign exchange. It’s all connected, and we take our contribution to the economy very seriously,” stated Bourne.
The GAIA CEO also reported that they upgraded the airport’s back-end baggage delivery processing and security enhancements at passenger check-in.
NewsAmericasNow.com
