The Caribbean island nation of Barbados expects to hugely benefit from increased numbers of Irish and British holiday visitors on the back of travel giant TUI launching its largest ever winter schedule to the region.
As of this winter, TUI will – out of the UK – increase flight capacity to Barbados, with a record number of 54,000 seats available. The company will also increase the number of hotel partners it has on the island and significantly boost its cruise capacity.
The Marella Explorer 2, with a capacity of 1,850 passengers, will operate weekly on Sundays, from November 20 to April 16. The Marella Discovery will operate weekly on Thursdays from December 22 to April 20, with a capacity of 1,800 passengers.
And for the first time, both ships will homeport in Barbados and will operate a total of 40 sailing rotations until April 2023, adding a month of additional cruising to the previous season, which ended in March.
TUI, which previously chartered seven flights per week to Barbados, has increased this to eight weekly flights to cater for growing demand.
Six of these weekly charter flights will depart from Birmingham, London Gatwick, and Manchester airports, as well as two ‘Rover’ flights which will depart from various UK airports weekly.
“We are pleased with the news that TUI UK will increase their Barbados programme for the 2022/23 winter season. From the additional flight capacity and extended schedule to the homeporting of two of their largest cruise ships, and new hotel partners, this sheer size of this expansion underpins TUI UK’s confidence in Barbados,” said Barbados’ Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Sen. the Hon. Lisa Cummins.
Director of UK and Ireland for Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc, Cheryl Carter, welcomed the announcement, saying: “We are thrilled that this relationship [with TUI] which began in 2011, continues to flourish and we hope to continue to build on this by developing further opportunities in the future. We look forward to welcoming even more UK and Irish holidaymakers to our island through TUI UK.”
Ms Carter added that since the inception of the programme with TUI UK, Barbados has seen a 189% growth in cruise passengers over the past 11 years.
The programme started in winter 2011/2012 with only one vessel and has now grown to incorporate a number of hotels, and offer extensive pre and post-cruise destination experiences in Barbados.
Cruise goers can discover the best of the Caribbean with a choice of six TUI Cruise itineraries that start and finish in Barbados’ capital city of Bridgetown.
