The Barbados Revenue Authority (the Authority), the Barbados Licensing Authority, general insurance companies, and the Barbados Police Service have collaborated to enhance the vehicle registration system for private vehicles.

This initiative represents a significant step toward improving efficiency, convenience, and compliance for vehicle owners and law enforcement.

Under the new system, owners of private vehicles seeking to renew their vehicle registrations will no longer need to visit the Authority’s payment centres to update and receive the registration disc. Instead, private vehicle registrations will now be completed online, streamlining the process for thousands of motorists across Barbados. Vehicle owners are encouraged to register and familiarise themselves with the digital platform, accessible at https://portal.bra.gov.bb.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, noted: “This collaborative effort represents a major step in modernising the way we serve Barbadians. By digitising this aspect of the private vehicle registration process, we are not only improving convenience for the public but also strengthening the integrity of our registration and insurance systems while working to reduce the lines in our offices.”

When vehicle owners renew their insurance, the policy details from the general insurance companies will be used to update the owner’s vehicle registration records in the licensing system. This initiative ensures that vehicle registration records within the licensing system are current and compliant with the requirements of Section 5(4) of the Road Traffic Act, which mandates annual vehicle registration.

By integrating insurance compliance into the registration process, vehicle owners will be able to download their Digital Vehicle Registration Card upon successful upload of their insurance details.

Carolyn Williams-Gayle, Senior Manager, Headquarters Services at the Authority highlighted that the information discrepancies will prevent the generation of a Vehicle Registration Card.

 “As with any digital transformation, accuracy of records is essential. During the testing of the system, we identified four issues which will prevent the registration card from being generated. Issues may arise due to data entry errors such as incorrect license plate, chassis, engine or VIN numbers; missing information; mismatched records or lapsed insurance policies.

“To assist vehicle owners, we designed the system to provide real-time error notifications when an issue is detected. These messages will specify the nature of the discrepancy and direct users to the appropriate avenue for the issue to be rectified,” she shared.

“Currently, 75 per cent of the general insurance companies which serve Barbados have uploaded their data to facilitate the generation of the Vehicle Registration Card and we thank the insurance companies for their participation in this process. However, where insurance details have not been uploaded, the registrant will still need to visit their insurance company and the Authority’s offices in person to access their Vehicle Registration Card.”

The Authority’s Contact Centre is available at 429-ETAX (3829) to answer any questions that citizens may have. As part of the ongoing digital transformation, the team expanded the scope of the project to allow the Barbados Police Service to digitally verify the validity of vehicle registrations. The adoption of these digital solutions seeks to make the roads safer and compliance easier for all citizens. (PR/GIS)

BY CHAIRMAN JAVON GRIFFITH 

My fellow Barbadians, as we usher in the new year of 2025, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) wishes to extend absolute best wishes to the people of Barbados.

I extend heartfelt gratitude to all tourism stakeholders, particularly our esteemed tourism workers, for their unwavering support and commitment to our island’s tourism industry. 

The past year presented us with new and exciting business prospects. We are profoundly thankful, to the many valued investors for consistently believing in our country’s ability, to elevate Barbados’ status as a premier luxury Caribbean holiday destination.

In the eleven months of 2024 from January to November, Barbados welcomed to its shores a total of 617,228 stay-over arrivals, according to the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS). This is up 10% from the 559,701 stay-over arrivals, recorded for the same period in 2023. 

This growth has been primarily driven by the island’s resounding success, in significantly growing the United States market. For January to November 2024, this market has already accounted for 201,005 visitors compared to 157,023 visitors, for the exact same period in 2023. 

This 28% increase in North American visitors to our shores, is being positively felt in every corner of the tourism industry and across our membership. From the restaurants to the car rental firms, from the surf instructors to the taximen, from the villa management companies to the hotels and from the beach vendors to the merchants in Bridgetown. 

This is being driven by the return of American Airlines to Barbados from New York-JFK and Philadelphia, the return of Delta Airlines to Barbados from Atlanta and New York-JFK, the introduction of Frontier Airlines to Barbados from San Juan, the increases in United Airlines flights to Barbados from Newark-EWR, the increases in JetBlue flights to Barbados from Boston and the increases in American Airlines flights to Barbados from Charlotte.

2025 promises to be an exciting year on many fronts and I look forward to the many months ahead with a great sense of optimism. Barbados’ tourism industry is poised for more expansion as various tourism investments, including the InterContinental Hotels Group Hotel Indigo and the Blue Monkey Beach Club continue to take shape. Excitement is also building for Marriott’s long-awaited transformation as they introduce the world to the new Autograph Collection (Waves Hotel and Spa, Treasure Beach, Tamarind and The House), the Luxury Collection (Colony Club) and in February 2026 to the Tribute Portfolio (Crystal Cove and Turtle Beach). 

With both American Airlines and Delta Airlines collectively providing 10,000 new seats into Barbados per month in summer 2025, we are projected to have a great summer performance as an industry. 

The BHTA will continue to advocate on our members’ behalf, and we eagerly anticipate further collaboration with local, regional and international partners, to realise our strategic business objectives. The rebound of our industry could not have been possible without the extensive work done by our invaluable and key tourism partner, the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI). I have high praises for our tourism partners, who have been integral to our successful navigation of these choppy post COVID-19 seas; and because of this united front, we are seeing encouraging signs that the sector is fully back on its feet.

It would be very remiss of me not to highlight the recent stellar performance of the Barbados Culinary Team at the 2024 edition of Taste of the Caribbean held in November in Miami, Florida. The team was led by the Management Team of Adrian Cumberbatch, Javon Cummins, Rohan Hackshaw and Damian Leach. The four competing members of the team were Rickeena Kirton – Pastry Chef, Dejuan Toppin – Junior Chef, Rynaldo Joseph – Senior Chef and Alexander Chandler – Mixologist. The team returned victorious as the Caribbean National Culinary Team of the Year 2024 and have made Barbados exceptionally proud.

The future of tourism in Barbados is looking bright, despite the challenges we have and continue to face because of external factors. As you have previously heard, our vision speaks to strategic initiatives and partnerships that will diversify our product, build human capital and expand linkages with other sectors, while targeting new markets, driving a more collaborative approach to our tourism sector, while still ensuring that the growing tourism industry benefits all Barbadians. The resetting of our tourism sector to build forward and stronger, can only be achieved by focusing on building strong local capacity with a relentless focus on quality and excellent customer service. 

On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire Secretariat of the BHTA, I wish all citizens of Barbados and our cherished visitors a healthy, happy and prosperous 2025!

Javon Griffith, BHTA Chairman

The Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC) is very closely monitoring the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) is having on higher education institutions (HEIs) in Barbados.

To this end, the Council has been conducting research into the impact of AI so far, and assessing the positive and negative factors and challenges it may present in the future. This relates to both external quality assurance agencies (EQAAs) like itself, and also for the local HEIs it recognises.

Research & Development Officer I with the Council, Jonre Waterman recently made a presentation on the topic: ‘Investigating The Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education In Barbados: The Opportunities for Innovation and the Implications for Academic Integrity’.

He made the presentation to delegates in attendance at the 20th Annual Conference and General Meeting of the Caribbean Area Network for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education (CANQATE).

The conference was hosted by the University Council of Jamaica and held at Pegasus Hotel in Kingston Jamaica under the theme: ‘Twenty Years of Promoting Quality in Higher Education: Development, Impact and Opportunities for a Sustainable Future’.

In his presentation, Mr. Waterman said while there are some noteworthy benefits that come with AI within higher education, from the institutional and academic perspective, the reality is that there are also some challenges for such institutions.

Among the key concerns, he says HEIs will have to ensure that students are not utilising the technology to give the impression that their breadth of knowledge is greater than it really is, whenever they are tasked with turning in reports or doing exams and papers.

“As it relates to the use of the AI-powered technologies…it’s not going anywhere. Global institutions will continue to incorporate AI-powered tools into their teaching and learning process. What this will do is advance the quality of the higher education process and HEIs that fail to address this run the risk of being left behind on the quality curve. This presents a challenge for EQAAs like the BAC as it seeks to assure and enhance the quality of the local higher education space,” he said.

“As it relates to the academic integrity concerns, the biggest fear is the ability of students to subvert the rigour of the academic process in favour of skipping straight to the finishing line and receiving qualifications and awards that do not speak to their actual level of knowledge and understanding.” 

Mr. Waterman said a failure of HEIs to respond to this will create a scenario where the quality of the higher education process would be eroded.

He says the BAC has come up with some recommendations to help address its AI-related concerns. “These include conducting assessments to determine the capacity to incorporate emerging technologies such as AI that can improve the quality of educational offerings.

We understand that based on your size and scope, for some institutions there may not be any feasibility for AI-powered or any that would actually provide any significant improvements to your quality…but you can’t just say so without conducting that assessment. So, our recommendation is that you conduct that assessment; then you can determine whether there is any use to the institution, but it must be done first.”

He said another important recommendation is for higher education institutions to assess vulnerabilities of academic integrity to emerging technologies such as AI. He also noted an important recommendation that the Council itself undertake going forward: “Also, as the BAC, there exists scope for us to review our quality standards to ensure that they adequately call upon institutions to address and respond to technological advances.” (PR/GIS)