St. Lucia returns to tourism as usual
The last major storm to crimp St. Lucia’s tourism in 1980 halted business for the next three months. But earlier this month, visitors to the tourist-dependent island were only inconvenienced for a few days by hurricane Tomas.
“Within 72 hours, we were 90 percent recovered. Our level of infrastructure is much better now,” said Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet in an interview with TravelMole.
The Caribbean island, which relies heavily on US and UK tourism, faced water and electricity problems after hurricane Tomas hit the area. There was no major damage but St. Lucia’s two airports were also closed for a few days.
Rain was the major issue. “We received 33 inches of rain in 24 hours. That’s two years of flooding, which was the big issue as well as landslides which blocked some roads and caused some damage,” Chastanet said. But despite that minor setback, visitors to St. Lucia are breaking records.
“Our land-based tourism arrivals are up 18 percent to date from last year,” Chastanet said.
Air arrivals are also up after JetBlue entered the market with non-stop flights from New York. American also added flights.
Greater tourist activity is no accident for the island, where tourism makes up almost two thirds of the country’s economy.
“We’ve been focusing on our niche: which is the honeymoon and romantic market,” Chastanet said. Romantic tourism went up sharply after the area was featured on some TV programs.
The future of St. Lucia will continue to focus on the area as a romantic destination but will also promote “village tourism.”
“We have about nine small villages where we’re helping them redevelop to make them more accessible and create a more authentic ‘barefoot luxury’ background,” he said. The small villages (1500 to 2000 people) will be encouraged by the government to add more B&Bs, smaller hotels and other beachfront developments.
While luxury properties are available, smaller “barefoot luxury” developments will be the focus of the new tourist thrust, which Chastanet says he believes is what tourists will want in the future.
By David Wilkening
David
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