WE'VE GOT to find a way to get more visitors to come to Barbados.

Some of the solutions could include those mentioned below.

* Have bumper stickers made that say "My second home is in Barbados" and give them to every visitor. We would soon have cars all over the United States, Canada and everywhere else advertising Barbados.

This idea came from a fourth-former at Harrison College at least 20 years ago during a series of talks that I used to give to schools all over the island.

* The really big one was Paul Hadchity's Barbados By Invitation, a programme to bring as many people to Barbados as the infrastructure would allow, by offering free air fares from designated cities in the United States first and then Canada and Europe.

The plan – explaining how it would have been financed – was presented to the hotels and received their endorsement but was turned down by Government.

If you watch CNN and Fox you may see an advertisement now being screened inviting people to fly free to a certain destination.

I don't wonder where they got the idea from, I know, because a high executive from our tourism authority who did not approve of the idea when it was proposed here, left Barbados soon afterwards to work with the company now making this offer.

Meanwhile, we continue to do what we've always done, but now we're probably going to do more of it, as the budget for tourism is now up to $90 million.

Once more, we seem to be very happy with the solution we've always used, and when it does not work we will say, "We've got to find a way".

– MAURICE FOSTER