BARBADOS UPDATE

HOME AWAY FROM HOME - Terra Caribbean

We wanted to take a moment to give you a quick update on the situation here in Barbados. Despite the reports on the BBC and US news media which are very misleading, Barbados is fine and open for business!

Thankfully Barbados has not been impacted seriously by Hurricane Maria - just some rain and higher than usual West Coast sea swells, with some beach erosion over the last couple of days; but our neighboring islands of Dominica and Martinique have experienced terrible devastation overnight. Since last week Barbados is being used as a distribution hub for British troops as medical reserves, emergency shelter kits, rations and clean water are delivered to nearby islands affected by Irma. Richard Branson's son Sam was also here over the weekend gathering emergency supplies for the BVI and packing them onto his boat. In addition there are a number of local organizations including the Barbados Chamber of Commerce (BCCI) and the Barbados Hotel Tourism Association (BHTA), and numerous individuals banding together to gather much needed supplies to send to these islands. We expect this to continue and ramp up even more now that Dominica has also been so badly damaged. Barbados is fully operational and working to assist with aid to these islands; as well as assisting guests and our travel partners with relocation enquiries for holidays planned in the affected islands over the winter period.

As a firm we are also gathering what we can and working with some of our homeowners who are making donations to support the rebuilding of these islands. We have put together an appeal to allow any of our incoming guests to contribute to the relief effort by way of bringing a small "pack" of items with them when they visit which we will ensure goes to one of the relief organizations. We feel we have to do what we can to help our neighbors in any way we can.

We will keep you posted on any developments but felt we should touch base and let you know we are safe and life continues as normal in Barbados.