BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, April 14th 2014 (CUOPM) – Federal Minister of Tourism, Sen. the Hon. Richard “Ricky” Skerritt has listed several summer events designed to assist in the economic recovery of the twin-island Federation.
He told listeners to Freedom 106.5 FM’s “Good Morning St. Kitts and Nevis” that the events in the cruise tourism, sports tourism, hotel and agricultural sectors are designed to pump money into the economy that grew 1.7 percent in 2013 with a projected growth rate of 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 2014.
“It was only in 2008, that we brought the first ever summer cruise ship. This year we will have two (ships) this summer and next year (summer) we will have three. So the taxi sector, the vendors who service the needs of the visitors, the shopkeepers, the tour operators and the other transportation personnel who benefit from the cruise sector directly have reason to continue doing business year round although there is some level of slow down,” said Minister Skerritt.
“We also have a number of events. As you know the Music Festival was started for that same reason in an effort to bring some business to the hotels in June and that we’ve done over the last few years. We continue to build on that,” said Minister Skerritt.
He told listeners that the semi-final and finals of the Caribbean Premier League will be held in St. Kitts in August.
“So you are going to see all of the hotels being filled for that first part between Culturama in Nevis and CPL in St. Kitts for about two weeks and then as soon as CPL is over, we have Bangladesh coming here to St. Kitts playing a One Day game, a 20/20 game and then a three-day practice match. They’ll be here for about 10 days,” Minister Skerritt told listeners.
“So the month if August this year, which is traditionally a slow month and where a lot of our people tend to leave and go away on holidays, it is going to be a very, very busy month,” said Mr. Skerritt.
He said July this year will see the soft opening of Kittitian Hill, which has a very strong sustainable policy where they are going to be using all local fruits and vegetables and local produce.
“They are planting a lot of them right around on their own property,” said Minister Skerritt, who pointed to the links between tourism and agriculture.
“The agricultural linkage strengthens when the demand strengthens and the demand strengthens when we have visitors staying in hotels and other accommodations,” said Minister Skerritt.
He disclosed that recent studies have showed that only 60% of visitors are actually staying in hotels with 40% staying in private villas and condominiums resulting in an increase in the production of agriculture.
“If you look at the recent figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, in most of the products, production is up; and you know if production is up, one has to assume it is because consumption is up,” said Minister Skerritt.
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