St. Kitts, Anguilla Focus on Stayover Market

The slippage in stayover visitors this year is a statistical nightmare for the Caribbean region, where most destinations are grappling with negative growth and diminished revenues.

So what’s to be done? Two tourism ministers attending the recent Caribbean Week events here shared their thoughts.

Anguilla’s Victor Banks, who also serves as minister of finance, economic development, investment and commerce, said that “the key is to remain as aggressive as possible. We can’t afford not to be in the game, and we cannot ride the tide.”

In a separate interview, St. Kitts Minister of Tourism, Sports and the Environment Ricky Skerritt agreed, adding that converting his island’s growing cruise market to returning land-based vacationers figures high on his priority list.

Cruise arrivals on St. Kitts are expected to approach the half-million mark in the 2009-2010 season, an 18 percent increase over the year before.

However, Skerritt has seen a falloff in spending by cruise passengers, which has led to the temporary closing of some shops in the Port Zante complex.

The luxury market continues to hold fairly steady in Anguilla, helped along by a new air service and a strong resort product, said Banks.

In St. Kitts, the stall in the once-anticipated shift to the up-market has led tourism officials and hoteliers “to readjust targets, discount rates to keep occupancies decent and push the value-added element in hotel packages,” Skerritt said.

Delta will add a second weekly nonstop from Atlanta to St. Kitts on Dec. 23, which Skerritt said “demonstrates Delta’s confidence in our tourism product.”

St. Kitts also is served by American from New York Kennedy and Miami; US Airways from Charlotte, N.C.; and American Eagle from San Juan.

Although bulldozers have ground to a halt on many islands, the Christophe Harbour project on St. Kitts’ southeastern peninsula remains on track. The site will include an 18-hole golf course, a mega yacht marina and the 125-room Mandarin Oriental resort.

Also, construction has resumed at the Ocean’s Edge residential development on St. Kitts’ Frigate Bay, where financing problems earlier this year had forced a temporary halt.

On Anguilla, the reopening of Cap Juluca last December following a $22 million upgrade by its new owner, industry veteran Adam Aron, helped jump-start the winter season.

The upgrade marked the first phase of an $80 million makeover of the resort’s 18 Moorish-style villas.

“Cap Juluca led the way for us this past winter, and the momentum has carried through,” Banks said. “June occupancies are in the 80 percent range, it looks like July will hit the 70 percent mark.”