About 130 tourism stakeholders have been trained to respond to emergencies involving visitors, as the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) moves to strengthen how the destination handles critical incidents.
BTMI Guest Experience Manager Althea O’Neal said the response to an emergency can have a significant impact on a visitor’s overall experience of Barbados.
“We want to ensure that our tourism partners, our tourism professionals, are equipped to manage these situations well because the world is watching.”
Tourism stakeholders at the workshop
The BTMI hosted its first Critical Incident Awareness & Response training workshop for tourism professionals at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on Friday.
O’Neal stressed the importance of being prepared, noting that visitors have other destinations they can choose.
“It has a lot to do with how Barbados responds when there is a critical incident.”
She explained that the tourism experience does not only involve the exciting aspects of a vacation but can also include an unexpected crisis.
“It’s not only involving all of the touch points from the moment the vacation is booked to the experience through the airport, the taxi driver, the accommodation and all the attractions and so forth, but the guest experience also involves how we respond to critical incidents that occur right here at Destination Barbados.”
She noted that a number of incidents can affect visitors and said it is the responsibility of tourism stakeholders to respond efficiently, “to manage the situation, as best as we can, to do any damage control, you know, and to reassure our visitors that Barbados cares.”
Workshop facilitators included Marlon Charles, who addressed crisis support; Station Sergeant Jamal Mohan of the Barbados Police Service, who spoke on safety and security; and Simon Alleyne of the Department of Emergency Management, who addressed emergency preparedness and response. Medical experts also addressed participants on medical and injury emergencies.
O’Neal said critical incidents can happen at hotels, on watercraft and vessels, and in different areas of the tourism experience.
“That initial response really makes a difference to the outcome of these situations so we felt that it was very important to equip our stakeholders as it relates to critical incidents in the tourism space.”
O’Neal underscored the importance of making visitors feel cared for, especially during unexpected and traumatic events.
“As tourism professionals, we have a shared responsibility to protect the people who choose Barbados as their destination. Yes, we want Barbados to be known for our warmth and hospitality, but I believe that we should also strive to be known as a destination that protects life, responds with compassion, and manages difficult situations with excellence. When a visitor is having the best holiday of their life, we want to make that experience memorable for all the right reasons. But when something unexpected and potentially traumatic happens, we also need to make sure that visitors know that Barbados cares, and that is the experience we want to create.”
(LG)
