Whistling Dixie On Mullins Beach

Mullins Beach 05/26/11 circa noon (click top portion of image to enlarge)

If you buy into the official Government line, everything is coming up roses for Barbados tourism.  However, if you visited Mullins Beach yesterday around noon and/or talked to the vendors and watersports operators there you get a totally different picture altogether.  I know we are already a month and a half past the official end of the high season but the picture above is one we only normally see in September when the beach bar takes advantage of the doldrums to close down and spruce up for the coming winter high season.  One chair vendor didn't even show up yesterday as well as several of the jet ski operators.  One lunch vendor ventured that things have been so bad all year so far that customers having been begging for discounts.

Ironically, this bad economic turn in the area comes at a time when the beach itself, at least closest to the beach bar, is in its best shape since the beginning of the year when three rounds had to be added at the bottom of the stairs just to reach the sand.  However, just to the south bordering Gibbses Beach remains very eroded making it quite a challenge to walk between the two beaches especially at high tide.  Government needs to stop whistling Dixie and address the real issues facing tourism in the area before it's too late and/or too expensive to do so.



See also: Visitors Up

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