Slowly watching Barbados go through the Doxey’s Tourism Irritation Index (1975). Based on index, Barbados is clearly in stage 4, Antagonism.

Finally able to put my BSc to good use.

What is the Doxey’s Irritation Index (1975)?
It is a popular model used to describe the residents’ of a destination attitudes towards tourism.

Every destination goes through a Tourism Life Cycle (Butler 1980). The life cycle coincides with Doxey’s Model.

As you can see from above and as @_elenarachelle pointed out, Antagonism suggests a steady decline in tourism. However, Butler and other theorists believe that destinations can go go through the Rejuvenation stage of the life cycle.

Based on Barbados’ tourism management strategy during COVID-19, they will enter the rejuvenation stage of the tourism life cycle. However, it will be at the expense of the residents.

This sparks the discussion on Sustainable VS Responsible Tourism and the detrimental impact of tourism on SIDS.
This is why I’m very eager to conduct my PhD field study in Barbados.

Based on what we’ve seen so far on Barbados’ tourism management response to COVID-19, it is evident that their focus is on sustainable tourism (seeing into the future). However, their continuous disregard for their residents will jeopardize their efforts.

This can be rectified by using the Responsible Tourism approach by Goodwin (2016) and Krippendorf (1987). In a nutshell, it is all about accountability! Holding the tourism stakeholders accountable. Not just some but ALL.

The decision made by the Government of Barbados is a good strategy IF the current environment was different. In my opinion, a holistic approach should have been taken that would:
1. Hold tourist accountable for their actions. (No )
2. Tend to the needs of the residents first!