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The island of Barbados has a single major airport, the Sir Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) (IATA identifier BGI). The Grantley Adams Airport receives daily flights by several major airlines, from points around the globe, as well as several smaller regional commercial airlines and charters. The airport serves as the main air-transportation hub for the Eastern Caribbean. The airport is currently under-going a US$100 Million upgrade and expansion.

Though one might assume the island deals with severe tropical storms and hurricanes during the rainy season it actually does not. The island gets brushed or hit every 3.09 years and the average number of years between direct hurricane hits is once every 26.6 years.

As is the case in many of the other Caribbean and Latin American countries, Carnival is an important event for many people on the island, as well as the thousands of tourists that flock to the island to participate in the annual events.

Barbados has diplomatic missions headed by resident ambassadors or high commissioners in Canada, the U.K., the U.S., and Venezuela, and at the European Union (Brussels) and the UN. It also has resident consuls general in Toronto, Miami, and New York City. Australia, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, Colombia, People's Republic of China, Guatemala, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela have ambassadors or high commissioners resident in Barbados

On July 4, 1973, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Jamaica signed a treaty in Trinidad to found the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). In May 1974, most of the remaining English-speaking Caribbean states joined CARICOM, which now has 14 members. Barbados also is a member of the Caribbean Development Bank, established in 1970, with headquarters in Bridgetown. The eastern Caribbean's Regional Security System, which associates Barbados with six other island nations, also is headquartered in Barbados. In July 1994, Barbados joined the newly established Association of Caribbean States (ACS).

While slavery was ongoing (1627-1838), African music included work songs, funereal and religious music. Though slave owners initially allowed dances, this ended in 1688 because officials feared that the slaves would plan a rebellion at such festivities. The same law also prohibited the use of drums and horns, which were feared to be used as communication.

Business links and investment flows have become substantial, as of 2003 the island saw from Canada CAN$25 Billion in investment holdings, placing it as one of Canada's top five destinations of Canadian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Canadian Outward Foreign Direct Investment to the World (http://www.asiapacificbusiness.ca/data/trade/general_dataset5_toworld.cfm). Businessman Eugene Melnyk of Toronto in Ontario, Canada is said to be Barbados' richest permanent resident.

As political awareness among the black majority on the island spread, so did bebop, a kind of jazz which was associated, in the United States, with social activism and Afrocentrism. The first Barbadian bebop musician from the island was Keith Campbell, a pianist who had learned to play many styles while living in Trinidad during a time when American soldiers were stationed there, providing a ready market for bands that could play American music. Other musicians of this period included Ernie Small, a trumpeter and pianist, and bandleader St. Clare Jackman.

The start of the Port Charles Marina project in Speightstown helped the tourism industry continue to expand in 1996-99. Offshore finance and informatics are important foreign exchange earners, and there is also a light manufacturing sector. The government continues its efforts to reduce the unacceptably high unemployment rate, encourage direct foreign investment, and privatize remaining state-owned enterprises.

The largest Carnival cultural events which take place in Barbados are the Congaline Festival and Crop Over Festival as known internationally.