Corea and Company boosts its tour division

The 2007-2008 cruise season promises to be a robust one for St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), so the ships’ agent Corea and Company is increasing its capacity and boosting its competence and efficiency.{{more}}

Representatives from the company have been traveling from Spain to England and Miami to Cozumel in Mexico promoting SVG as a cruise destination. They have also formed strategic alliances with their counterparts in Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, St Lucia and Grenada.

Nineteen tour guides were presented with certificates for completing training in tour-guiding, First Aid and cardiac pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in a ceremony recently.

The training ran from 15 September to October 26. The participants were required to complete 40 hours of tour-guide training, five hours of First Aid and five hours of CPR training.

The course was coordinated Noll Patterson and Michelle Forsyth of Corea and Company Tour Division; Forsyth also facilitated the Techniques of Tour-Guiding aspects of the of the course.

Dr Edgar Adams, Earl Abbott and Monica Woodley facilitated the historical, communications and customer service components respectively.

The First Aid and CPR courses were conducted by personnel from the St Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross.

Addressing the graduates, guest speaker Tourism Consultant Vera-Ann Bereton implored them to be professional at all times and told them that when they stop learning, they would stop growing. “Knowledge is not power”, she said, “It’s what you do with your knowledge that makes you powerful”. She also encouraged the tour-guides to form themselves into an association and to use the growth in information Technology (IT) to develop the profession.

Corea and Company Director Joel Providence gave an overview of the Cruise Tourism industry in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). He said that there are many opportunities in the sector as SVG has moved from receiving 32,000 Cruise Passenger six years ago to about 150,000 in the 2006-2007season. He however said that SVG will fall slightly short of last season’s figure this season.