Intra-regional travelers can expect a new regional carrier in the coming months.

Barbados Tourism and Marketing Inc (BTMI) President Shelly Williams revealed that the government was in talks with private charters to establish a low-cost regional airlift during a popular radio show, Down to the brass thumbtacks Wednesday.

“In the next two months you may see another charter service, a low budget charter service that can take people to Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, and in the islands where we have to go to be able to do business,” Williams said, adding that the government was “putting things in place” to reduce the cost of travel.

The president of BTMI acknowledged that regional travel had been affected by the fall of LIAT.

“We had some difficulties with LIAT. At the moment there is only one aircraft operational. We are in discussions with private charterers to see if we can settle in and have planes that we can install for air transport.

We are actively looking. We engaged with several players and tried to set up support for those who were eating the ground right now. It is a challenge for all of us. Many of us rely on regional travel for business purposes,” she noted.

Williams also noted that the grounding of LIAT hampered regional tourism. She revealed that the high cost of regional travel has contributed to a drop in low-end bookings [three stars and below] Properties.

“NOTNormally what would drive business to these properties are festivals and sporting events and stuff like that and due to COVID we didn’t have any. The cost of a plane ticket may have ostracized a certain type of traveler and on the other hand we have luxury villas and markets that say they don’t even have enough villas to satisfy demand,” she noted.