OAS reassures nation of project completion

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

OAS Representative, Starrett Greene

In an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, OAS Representative for the Federation Starrett Greene explained that the new Coordinator of the project, Gene Knight, will continue to collaborate with members of the various rural communities, and will carry out a number of activities that will assist in collecting tangible evidence for promotion, analysis and background information.

“It should be understood that this project is scheduled to be completed on or before March 31, 2009. However, due to a number of extenuating circumstances, it will be necessary to request the OAS to grant an extension if the original goals and objectives are to be met. The preparation of a tourism development plan for the island of St. Kitts will be one of the key outputs of this project. Upon completion, the plan will be shared widely on the island, with both government units and local residents.”

Greene also informed that Dr. Sarah Nicholls, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation & Resource Studies and Geography at Michigan State University is the Consultant to the project. He added that during the early part of January 2009, Dr. Nicholls met with a number of stakeholders in the Federation who have shown interest in the development of heritage tourism, promotion and marketing of the Federation's cultural festivals and the protection of the ecosystem on the island. ~~Adz:Right~~

“She [Nicholls] specifically met with Jay Farrier, a member of the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network and they discussed how to involve the rural communities in ways that parallel the network's main mission. Discussions centred around the creation of economic opportunities through the development of business enterprises. It is believed that turtle watching would lead to the establishment of guided tours, and this would in turn attract the development of business enclaves that will be owned and operated by local people.

“This same concept was advanced and extended when Dr. Nicholls met with the Coordinator of the UNESCO Youth Path Project and the Chairperson of the Festival Committees on St. Kitts as well. The opportunities for tourism development and for bringing more people into the rural communities of St. Kitts formed the core of the Agro/Eco/Tourism project, funded by the OAS.”  

The OAS Representative said Nicholls would engage a graduate student to begin preparing the tourism development plan which should include collection and review of the relevant tourism development literature as well as promotional and marketing materials for St. Kitts and surrounding islands. The development plan would attempt to design a survey to be administered to visitors to the island, and would include the entry and analysis of the results of this survey. The plan would also include community meetings with the goal of learning about residents' attitudes towards tourism development.

The AETP was officially submitted to the OAS for consideration in 2006 and is geared toward documenting the nation’s historical and or cultural assets with a view to obtain funding to develop and restore them.