In addition, the Crop Over festival, which has over the past three decades opened up an entirely new tourism market among the Barbadian Diaspora, continues to grow steadily. Tourism is by far Barbados’ most important source of foreign exchange, contributing about two-thirds of our earnings on the current account of the balance of payments, and almost 20 percent of the country’s GDP.
Any strategy for renewal of growth has to start with that sector. Most of the remainder of inflows of foreign currency on the current account come from other services, mainly international business and financial services, which all together contribute another 20 percent or more.