Beache : Vincentians need to promote local tourism

A call is being made for local tourism to be promoted more, since many Vincentians do not know enough about their country.{{more}}

Minister of Tourism, Youth and Sport Glen Beache made this call as he addressed a ceremony to mark the rehabilitation of the Vermont Nature Trail on Monday, November 5.

“Too many of our own people do not know St. Vincent and the Grenadines as well as they should,” Beache said. “We need to do a better job at promoting local tourism: making sure that Vincentians go all throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he continued.

According to Beache, the beauty of this country is often taken for granted by Vincentians, and in most cases it takes persons from more developed countries to inform us that this country is indeed beautiful.

Beache also highlighted that we need to keep our country clean, since it will be beneficial to both Vincentians and visitors. According to him, one of the main reasons why the Princess Cruise Line pulled out of this country was because of the untidy state of Kingstown. He said a lot of work had to be done in order to get the ship to return to St. Vincent.

“We have to take it upon ourselves to make sure that we do what’s right to make sure that our children live in a clean environment; that when visitors come that they would see what a beautiful place we have in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, that they would want to come back here again,” he stated.

Although tourism surpassed agriculture as a foreign exchange earner years ago, Minister Beache is of the opinion that Agro-tourism can play an important role in the tourism industry and there is room for both of them to work together.

“I do not believe that we have moved with enough haste in this area. “There are many ways in which we can link them,” Beache stated.

He suggested that tours demonstrating how local plants are grown is one area in which the two industries can be linked. Another important area, he said, is the production of food to supply the many tourist developments and hotels which are coming on stream.

“Cruise ship season has already started. We are looking for new tours to sell cruise ships and cruise ship passengers, and this is one area; to see how we plant bananas, how we plant eddoes,” he stated.

This year’s cruise ship season began on October 4. Twelve ships have already called at Port Kingstown.(SB)