BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 25TH 2010 (CUOPM) – The international press coverage of the unprecedented incident that recently occurred in St. Kitts has been “factual and kind to St. Kitts.”
So says Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Sen. the Hon. Richard Skerritt.
“In total, to date there have been 171 articles appearing in 90 unique outlets. There were 1226 twitter posts and 50 Facebook postings. The USA Today reader poll is technically still open, but voting had already slowed to a near halt by last weekend with 63% of the people voting that it was an isolated incident and cruise lines should not pull out of St. Kitts. Another 17% voted that they should pull out only until the robbers were apprehended. In short 80% of the readers of USA Today online had goodwill for St Kitts as a tourism destination,” Sen. Skerritt told Thursday’s sitting of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly.
“In sum, the background crisis communications role for Tourism is speaking directly to the travel trade, crafting messages, writing releases, ensuring distribution of the official statements to the media, monitoring media coverage and monitoring and managing St. Kitts’ social media sites. This strategy has worked effectively to contain the international coverage to the facts of this incident and to positively impact the tone of the various news articles which have resulted,” Mr. Skerritt told the lawmaking body.
He said that where the Tourism Ministry took a leadership role in this particular crisis was in business maintenance and recovery.
“My Ministry’s focus was to work directly with the individual cruise lines, to meet personally with their representatives, and to work with our extensive contacts at the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) to inform them of the increased security being put in place and to reassure them of visitor safety for the future. The fact that only two cruise calls were cancelled last week and that Princess and Carnival have announced that they will resume their schedule is testimony to the success of our efforts,” Minister Skerritt said.
He disclosed that his Ministry’s stakeholder outreach also included the airline and tour operator partners to reassure them of St. Kitts’ commitment to visitor safety and to reinforce the long standing recognition of the Federation as a hospitable and safe tourist destination.
The Tourism Minister said that by the time of Tuesday’s press conference led by Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Sam Condor and the Police High Command to announce the apprehension of the suspects, “I had already informed cruise executives and other key international tourism partners of the good news of the arrests and had received an initial indication that there would likely be no further cancellations of port calls.”
“I also learned from a forward sweep of advanced airline bookings, and a spot check with the local hotel association, that there was no serious evidence of cancellations by stay-over visitors. This trend has since been confirmed by Expedia and American Airlines, two organizations that deliver a large portion of our stay-over business,” said Minister Skerritt, who noted that by Friday afternoon, just five days after the unfortunate incident, he was able to officially announce that there would be no more cruise call cancellations and that those cruise ships that had cancelled their calls to St. Kitts would resume their schedules.
