St Lucia looks at ways to woo back visitors

St Lucia looks at ways to woo back visitors

The St Lucia Tourist Board recently held its biggest-ever grand fam trip, taking 40 agents and operators to the island for a week soon after terrorist attacks on the US. Helen Arnold reports

TOURISM in St Lucia has been hit hard by the recent terrorist attacks in the US, with visitor numbers down by about 30%, and some hotels on the island have even been forced to close.

Tourist board director Hilary Modeste said: “This attack is a major blow to our business and its knock-on effects could be disastrous.”

He added that with about 30% of St Lucia’s visitors coming from the US, it is vital that confidence in world travel is rekindled.

However, Modeste said the tourist board was adopting a ‘wait and see’ policy to see what retaliatory action the US was going to take before devising a strategy to get the beleaguered industry back on its feet.

“We are assessing the situation every 48 hours and are in the process of putting together some plans with our major US suppliers,” he said.

Modeste believes that if a long and protracted war does break out, the Caribbean could well benefit.

“People would be wary of going to places such as Egypt or Dubai, and could very well be attracted back to the Caribbean instead,” he added.

Even before the tragedy in New York, visitor numbers had been falling. The lack of flights to the island since JMC and Air 2000 pulled their services did not help matters either.

However, the situation is beginning to look brighter with Virgin set to introduce a second new flight from Gatwick to St Lucia via Barbados next month, and fledgling airline US Air is also planning to introduce a new twice-weekly route from Philadelphia to St Lucia.

Both international chains and small, independently run hotels have been affected by the crisis in New York. Ti Kaye, the newest property on St Lucia, has been forced to close for a week due to cancellations. Stonefield Estate, another independent property, also reported cancellations from US visitors.

The big chains are also suffering. The Hyatt St Lucia has been hit by a cancellation of a group of 200 from the US, although account manager Peter Jenkins said forward bookings are still looking good.

Other properties such as the Rex Papillion and Royal have chosen to use the period to close for what they are terming as “renovations”.

St Lucia Hotels and Tourism Association director for small hotels Indra Betts Tysoe said she was lobbying the government to axe the 8% hotel tax, as well as trying to persuade utility companies to provide their supplies at cost.

“Hotels are by far biggest the users of their supplies, yet they are faced with the highest costs,” she said.

Hyatt Regency: a group booking of 200 guests decided to cancel after the terrorist attacks on the US