by Kevon Browne
St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Tourism Minister Lindsay Grant, a guest on a panel discussion on Lessons from COVID Wednesday (March 7), featuring regional tourism ministers, and hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is sharing the Federation’s experience.
“I must say that it was very very challenging over the last year because our numbers were going through the roof over the last five years. Serious growth year over year when it came to stayover visitors. I must say we are going to introduce some new protocols next week, those will be announced on Wednesday I think it is, because as we ramp up we’re going to be changing and so we are hoping that very shortly, next week, will come some new protocols easing some of the requirements, etc., based on what is happening on the ground.”
Mr. Grant said the Federations numbers were through the roof prior to Covid-19.
“As you would recall our cruise numbers hit a million in 2018, a million again in 2019 and we were well on our way to hit that million mark in 2020 but COVID has certainly knocked the energy and the wind out of our sails. But I think there is hope with the vaccine, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and we just have to make sure that we stay the course and ensure that we are our brother’s keeper at the end of the day. We’ve learned from some of the other islands and I’m sure that they have learned from us too because this is an evolving pandemic, something changes every day and it’s a fluid situation. So, we really have to be on our toes and move with the times and ensure that we know what we are doing.”
