By Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Minister of Tourism, Hon. Marsha T. Henderson lauded the team at the Ministry and Department of Tourism for displaying strength, unity, and collective aspiration to develop a more vibrant tourism industry.
During the programme InFocus on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, host Ian Richards and Minister Henderson discussed the campaign theme “Venture Deeper launched in New York on September 20, 2022. “That message really seems to be resonating with the international community,” Richards stated.
“I am happy to hear that the new campaign is yielding success. We continue to work hard. Like I keep saying, we have an amazing team. Everybody carries their own weight and understands their responsibility” said Henderson.
The Minister of Tourism recalled a visit to England in 2022 for a Road Tour across several cities there, where some people said they had never heard of St. Kitts. She explained the importance of marketing the destination.
Henderson shared “We continue to work hard both in the Ministry and at the St.Kitts Tourism Authority. The new campaign was only launched last year and we’ve seen the results, the aggressive marketing and the selling of the destination. I mean, when people talk, it has to be ignorance when people say, “Oh, we’re always on a plane. We cannot stay here and sell the destination. All of these awards that you just mentioned and the others, come from aggressive marketing of the destination. When we stay here, other destinations are out there competing with us, so, “when we stay in our little cozy corner, how do people get here, how do people know about us?”
She added “We have to go out there and we sell the destination and I’m happy that we are seeing results; that’s in the St. Kitts Tourism Authority. Within the Ministry [of Tourism] we are working on delivering a product that we sell. You don’t want when you sell something people come and see other things.”
Under the new campaign, “Venture Deeper” the people, history, culture, and food are the selling points. The Tourism Minister said some of the things that locals take for granted are the things that visitors are looking forward to.
“When you look at the trends you would see that that is what visitors are looking for. I am so amazed sometimes when I go to sell the destination and things we take for granted here, for example, who we are as a people, is what makes the destination unique and authentic and how it can be distinguished from other destinations.”
“Visitors are so interested in our stories, who we are, what we eat, why we do what we do, so for us, one of the big things is the heritage, the heritage of our people, of our destination and that’s what we’re pushing more than the sun the sand and the sea, of course. I mean, visitors come for that. They can get it anywhere else; but can they get who we are as a people, our culture, or how we behave anywhere else?”
St. Kitts has been nominated in four categories for the World Travel Awards in 2023. The nominations include Caribbean’s Leading Adventure Tourism Destination 2023, Caribbean’s Leading Cultural Destination 2023, Caribbean Leading Dive Destination 2023, and Caribbean’s Leading Tourist Board 2023. Nevis however, has been nominated for the Caribbean’s Leading Honeymoon Destination 2023. Voting is open until July 09, 2023.
The awards ceremony will be hosted in St. Lucia on August 26, 2023.
