Lynch clears air on BTA loan
THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY (BLP) GOVERNMENT could not have predicted the turn of events during Cricket World Cup (CWC), says former Minister of Tourism Noel Lynch.
He was reacting to statements made in Parliament last week on an outstanding loan of US$10.5 million by the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) from Scotiabank for the provision of passenger transport services by Carnival Destiny during Cricket World Cup. With added interest, this loan now stands at US$21 million.
Last week Attorney General Freundel Start accused the BLP of “hiding details of a secret 2007 loan to fund a tourist liner for Cricket World Cup”.
“I think Barbadians need to be told the issues relating to this,” Lynch stated. “They need to understand that providing supplementary accommodation was one of the conditions under which we became a host of Cricket World Cup.
“We felt we had a deficit of over 3 500 rooms. Thus the issue of cruise ship and home-stay accommodation came into play.
“We had worked out an 85 per cent occupancy on the cruise liner, based on our arrivals and rotations out of India. We could not have predicted how Cricket World Cup would have played out.
“India’s presence in the World Cup had its own momentum; but India went out of the games early,” Lynch explained. “This meant that many of the Indian fans did not make it to Barbados.”
The former minister of tourism added that under the BTA Act permission was given for a loan and not for credit. He said it was unfortunate that the loan was only finalised after January 8, 2008 - when the present Government took up office.
“We used the cruise ship to ferry passengers across the islands, and to do trips between the islands. As a result we recovered about US$4 million.
“During the World Cup visitor arrivals increased by 26 000, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s (CTO) figures,” the former minister added. “Barbados also netted US$75 million out of Cricket World Cup. So the island did relatively well amid many challenges.”
Lynch said it was unfortunate that the present Government was faced with the repayment, having been elected soon after the loan was actually finalised.
“The Carnival Destiny issue needs clarification, and this is one of the issues I will be dealing with,” the former minister promised. (CH) (Nation New)