St. Kitts & Nevis Tourism Minister Issues Wake-up Call to the Region

St. Kitts and Nevis tourism minister, Rickey Skerritt, has said that increasing competition from new and emerging markets should serve as a wake-up call for the Caribbean.

Speaking to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) at the World Travel Market (WTM) trade show that ended in London last week, Mr. Skerritt warned that there was no room for complacency, as travelers were now a lot more discerning than in the past about where they take a holiday.

He said that regional tourism officials must find ways to promote the Caribbean as the destination of choice in the face of growing competition.

“Increasingly across the Middle East and Asia there are more warm weather destinations emerging than ever before, but still the Caribbean has to continue to differentiate itself in terms of our nature, our history and culture and our people,” he said.

The Caribbean is one of the most tourism-developed regions in the world and Skerritt, who is also a former Vice Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), said that industry officials needed to do a better job of exposing the potential visitor, including those who have been in the region several times to “the treasures that they may have missed”.