More than 150 travel agents from North America who specialise in selling golf packages, are now better equipped to promote Barbados as a golfing destination.  Drawn from 20 states across the United States and four provinces in Canada, the group sampled and tested the islandå‘s golf product and most praised it as on par with the best in the world.
They were all participants in the Third Annual Barbados Travel Agent Golf Invitational, hosted by the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) and played at the Barbados Golf Club, Sandy Lane Hotel and Almond Beach Village.
“They are golfing travel agents with a golfing clientele and they are here to sample the Barbados product and see how it stacks up with other golf products in the world,” said Bill Silvermintz, the BTA’s vice-president for North America.

Silvermintz said a sizeable contingent of 26 agents came from California and praised BTA Senior Business Development Manager Don McCarthy for doing some good work on the west coast. The group enjoyed three days of golf, playing a Calloway team tournament at the Barbados Golf Club, a scramble tournament at Sandy Lane and a pitch and putt tournament on the nine-hole course at Almond Beach.
Several of the agents were visiting Barbados for the first time and apart from golf they also experienced other aspects of the island’s tourism product - such as dining at restaurants, Island Safari tours, Coastal Cruises, Atlantis Adventures, island bus tours and shopping.

The fam trip was capped off with a dinner and presentation night at the Country Club, Sandy Lane, where the agents were addressed by Minister of Tourism Noel Lynch.

Also among those in attendance were chairman of the BTA Hudson Husbands, senior vice-president Stetson Babb and support sponsors from Air Jamaica, US Airways, Almond Resorts and Travel Agent Magazine.
“This is a wonderful event for Barbados. When you consider what this destination has been doing with the golf product for the past three to five years and we are at the point where we can have fam trips of 150 agents coming to Barbados - it speaks a lot about how Barbados is being positioned as a destination,” said Lynch.
“This is a wonderful event for Barbados. When you consider what this destination has been doing with the golf product for the past three to five years and we are at the point where we can have fam trips of 150 agents coming to Barbados - it speaks a lot about how Barbados is being positioned as a destination,” said Lynch.
Lynch said while other destinations were faltering in the United States market, Barbados had been gaining ground and the situation was different from what the island went through five to 10 years ago.
“Barbados is beginning to become the destination of choice. Even though we dropped off the Harris poll, what we have done in the last 18 months is phenomenal for a country that was not really recognised,” said Minister Lynch.
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(18/08/03) Crop Over Gives Barbados a Boost

(19/09/03) `Team Barbados` set to make history

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