History of Atlantis Submarines Barbados

History of Atlantis Submarines (Barbados) Inc.

• 1986 The Atlantis II submarine vessel arrived on board a cargo ship in the Bridgetown port on Dec 15 th 1986. The 28-passenger submarine was shipped directly from Expo 86 in Canada where it was on display coincidentally next to the Barbados Tourism Authority’s booth.  Carlisle House in Bridgetown was home to the check in facility. Earlyn Shuffler was the first General Manager, Roseanne Myers Marketing Manager.
• 1987 Official opening of Atlantis Submarines Barbados on February 15th at the Waterfront Café by the Minister of Tourism, Minister Branford Taitt.
• 1990 Moved to Horizon House, Bridgetown Barbados.
• 1991 Roseanne Myers appointed to General Manager; Earlyn Shuffler appointed Caribbean Manager.
• 1995 Ocean Quest new passenger vessel was added to the fleet.
• 1995 New home of Atlantis Submarines was started; Upgrade to larger Atlantis III, 48 passenger submarine. The semi-submersible Seatrec was also added to the fleet.
• 1996 Atlantis Submarines completed construction of their new home and moved to the Shallow Draught.
• 1998 Atlantis Seatrec was sold to the Cayman site.
• 2001 Atlantis branches out into other adventure tours in collaboration with local partners. The Carlisle Bay Snorkel, Barbados Ecohike and Carlisle Bay Kayak Adventure started.
• 2002 - 2003 Diversification and startup of Natural Wonders island tours and alliance to offer Turtle and Shipwreck snorkel tour and Beach Carnival to several cruise lines.
• 2003 Startup of Rhino Rider Water Safari tours. The rigid inflatable mini boats were sold to another operator overseas in 2005.
• 2005 Startup of the Atlantis Power snorkel tour.
• 2006 Winner of “The Achievement of Excellence Award” at the Tourism Awards.
• 2007 Atlantis celebrated 20 years with a church service, lunch and other activities. Atlantis was finalist in two categories of the Tourism Awards, “Pillar of Tourism” and “Achievement of Excellence”.
• 2008 Atlantis Submarines Barbados embarks on green certification process.
• 2009 Though in a recession, the management team and staff decided to use the slower months to dedicate themselves to becoming Green Certified. Atlantis Submarines Barbados became the first attraction in the world to achieve the double award from Green Certifications and Green Globe, signaling our recommitment to environmentally responsible operations.
• 2009 Atlantis Submarines took receipt of a second submarine, the 48-seat submarine Atlantis XV, which was sent from its home in Atlantis Submarines St. Thomas, USVI as a casualty of the recession. Though Barbados was in the heart of a recession, the team took the decision that as well as being caretakers of the second vessel that they would seek to utilize both vessels on busy cruise ships days to maximize sales.
• 2009 In this same year; due to continued focus on safety and quality in tough times, Atlantis went on to cop three Awards at the Barbados Tourism Awards. Atlantis Submarines Barbados won, in the Achievement of Excellence Business category for Attractions and Activities for the second time in three years, the Environmental category, and Victor Cooke, a tour guide for the Natural Wonders tour, won in the Achievement of Excellence individual category.
• 2010 Atlantis Submarines Barbados – Wins “Tourism Services Member of the Year Award” at the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA’s) Presidents Awards.
• 2011 Atlantis wins the award for the “Tourism and Hospitality” category Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry and has embarked on international service quality certification by the UK based agency "Hospitality Assured".
• 2011 Green Globe announces recertification of Atlantis Submarines Barbados.
• 2012 Atlantis Submarines Barbados cops three more awards at the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Presidents Awards.
• 2012 Atlantis Submarines Barbados has become the first attraction in the Caribbean to receive Hospitality Assured Certification.
• 2012 Atlantis Submarines Barbados Celebrates 25 Years in A Gala Dinner And Awards Ceremony.
• 2013 Atlantis Submarines Barbados receives Top Global Experience Award 2012 from VIATOR.
• 2013 Atlantis Submarines Barbados EARNS 2013 TRIPADVISOR CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE.
• 2014 BHTA Presidents Awards “Direct Tourism Services Award of Excellence”; Finalists in “Green Award” Category, “Schools Tourism Education Program Award”.
• 2014 CTO Travelmole “Caribbean Excellence in Sustainable Tourism Awards” 2014 Special Mention Biodiversity Conservation.
• 2015 - 2016 After operating both TSIII and TSXV in the high season, TSIII was put into laid up status and is on dry dock next to the Atlantis Check-in facility as a showpiece. It had taken 1.18M guests by its retirement. It will be kept to required standards and held in trust by the Barbados team as the official back up for the entire world-wide fleet in case of an emergency situation rendering one of the other submarines inoperable. Also, in 2016 the Atlantis Submarines General Manager was named Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association. As a manager of an attraction, she became the first non-hotelier to hold the top position of a national tourism association in Barbados and the Caribbean.
• 2017 Atlantis Submarines celebrated 30 years of service in the Barbados tourism sector.
• 2020 to September 2022 During the Covid pandemic Atlantis Submarines was assisted by the Barbados government to keep all staff employed, retrained and reskilled. All vessels including equipment, support boats and the submarine TS15 were maintained to the required standard of preventative maintenance though the operation was fully shutdown and partially operational until fully reopened in the last quarter of 2022. The operation successfully operated during the shutdown, and kept staff and guests safe, especially for the cruise lines that visited, all of which offered the tour.
• February 2021 The General Manager of Atlantis Submarines Barbados was appointed as the Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. Mrs. Roseanne Myers lead the initiatives in that capacity to assist with reopening the Tourism sector to full operation while still steering the Atlantis team to do the same.
• 2022 Atlantis Submarines Barbados emerged from Covid as the longest running submarine destination in the Atlantis Submarines International fleet. With the closure of the Grand Cayman operation Barbados became the oldest with a core team who were part of the startup and celebrated 35 years as a premiere attraction on the island.
• 2022 Atlantis Submarines Barbados was awarded the Caribbean Travelers Health Assurance Stamp for Healthier Safer Tourism (HST). CARPHA THP monitors submissions to the Tourism and Health Information System (THiS) on a weekly basis, which requires the business to report on occurrence of a range of illnesses including Covid 19. Fortunately, Atlantis has a clean slate. ASB staff also are in receipt of a participation certificate in the COVID-19 Health Measure for Hospitality Training Session.
• 2023 Atlantis Submarines returned to its full operating schedule in 2023 and again received certification with Green Globe after demonstrating its continued commitment to sustainability even through the economic recovery period. Operations Manager of Atlantis Submarines Barbados Robert Hinds was appointed to the board of the innovative financing organization the Barbados Environmental Sustainability Fund to create a resource for businesses to improve their ability to pursue sustainability goals.
• 2024 In February Atlantis Submarines celebrated 37 years of operation in Barbados and the fact that it is the Atlantis Submarines site with the record of longest continuously operating entity in the worldwide fleet. With a greater than 98% uptime record and annual recertification by the American Bureau of shipping, the Barbados team of highly trained and skilled personnel continues to meet and exceed very strict operating standards.
• June 2024 Marked Atlantis Submarines Barbados copping the award for Business Excellence - Attractions category having demonstrated adherence to high standards of quality, corporate governance and customer service excellence. This was awarded by the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association.