by Marlon Madden
Newly appointed Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Renee Coppin has identified the ease of doing business as a priority area for the association this year.
What is more, Coppin, who took up the post earlier this month, noted that she will be placing strong emphasis on research in an effort to help provide more relevant data to help rebuild the industry, which has suffered close to two years of very little to no business.
During a recent interview with Today’s BUSINESS, Coppin outlined her vision for the association, noting that it was her intention to ensure the island’s bread and butter industry emerged on a more sustainable path.
“I want to ensure, coming out of two years of a pandemic, that we are emerging and returning our industry to a place of continuity and sustainability.
I also want to ensure that we are delivering on the top articulated concerns of our members, and the primary one of those concerns has been and continues to be the ease and transparency of doing business in Barbados,” she said.
“I am sure you would have seen the studies on where we rank in terms of ease of doing business. This is something that continues to stymie not just tourism obviously, but it is particularly a bugbear for tourism because we operate as local entities in a global market and a globally competitive situation, and so we need to ensure that we have all of our agencies functioning at the highest level,” said Coppin.
However, she said in order for improvements to be realised in that area, several other issues should be ironed out including an ease in how tourism-related entities access available concessions and other government services.
“So going forward that is going to be a key area of focus for me and for the association,” she said. The hotel operator also indicated that a priority area for her during her tenure will be to generate relevant and timely data that will inform further development and sustainability of the industry.
She said stimulating interest in tourism both at home and abroad was necessary, as she explained that the collection and analysis of data would play a critical role in that regard.
“So one of our areas of focus as we go forward is to ensure that we strengthen our research capability, that we use the tools available to us in the association to always ensure that we always have the best information available to our association and to our partners to make the best decisions on behalf of the industry,” said Coppin.
The tourism executive, who was elected at a special general meeting of the BHTTA held in January, takes up the position following the departure of former Chairman Geoffrey Roach last December, after he served 18 months of his two-year term. Coppin, the owner and operator of two South Coast hotels – Pirate’s Inn and Infinity on the Beach, as well as real estate agency Sea Shell Caribbean Inc., has more than 20 years’ experience in the tourism industry.
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