Insights

Permit me to steal some space in AE Quarterly to reintroduce you to Antilles Economics. At Antilles Economics we want to see the Caribbean reach its potential output. To achieve this we believe that the private sector must be equipped to lead, and they need insights to do so. For us at AE, we see information as an investment into insights, and insights are assets to an organisation that can be leveraged like any other. In 2019, for our clients in Barbados we are introducing a new service called AE Insider. AE Insider is an independent source of research, data and other insights developed specifically for decision-makers in the private sector. 

In Barbados, the so-called ‘winter’ season that falls between December
and March is considered to be the peak time of the year for tourist
arrivals. Businesses and policymakers structure their policies and
operations to capitalise on the expected surge in arrivals during that
period. But what if the long-held views on Barbados’ tourists seasons
were wrong? What if seasonality trends had changed? Our research
suggests that seasonal trends in tourist arrivals have been evolving and these traditional notions of the tourist season in Barbados may need to be revised

Nowcasting has become widely popular in economics. In its most basic form, nowcasting can be summarised as ‘predicting the present and sometimes recent past’. Economists ‘nowcast’ because of the significant time lag in statistical releases. We often want to know what is going on in the economy in real time. So economists began looking for high frequency indicators which tend to be highly correlated with the ‘late release’ data. The problem is, even the leading indicators have a lag…until Google!

In this article, we chat with Kieshelle Mcknight-Cummins from Electric Car Rentals, a new car rental company in Barbados with an ambitious mission: to be the regional leader in green transportation by providing 100% eco-friendly vehicles for rent to tourists and residents.  The company only offers electric or hybrid vehicles with zero or ultra low carbon emissions.  This is a game changing move in a region that is embracing the ideas of a green economy and sustainable tourism.