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Former Tourism Minister Dominic Fedee has expressed general disappointment in Saint Lucia’s tourism marketing, expressing to reporters that he was concerned about a lack of visibility.
“The government has shouted about records. I am waiting to see the tourism report. I haven’t seen one for the year but usually they come out on a monthly basis,” the former Anse La Raye-Canaries MP stated.
But he indicated that it would be interesting because the destination has lost significant airlift in the middle of the winter season.
“The American Airlines flight from Chicago is no longer in the system. It was there last year. The American Airlines flight from JFK, which came back, has reduced capacity,” Fedee observed.
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“Jetblue out of New Jersey no longer in the system in the middle of winter. The second Miami flight which we had, we used to have a flight leaving at 8:30 and one at 10:30 in the morning gone. So it’s affecting the connectivity when you lose air seats at such a level – it is affecting the capacity of the Island to come out of this difficult time,” he told reporters.
Fedee said he believed the economy is still recovering from COVID.
And in the recovery, he explained that the productive sectors must receive the best chance of success.
In this regard, the former Minister noted that sectors like tourism and agriculture depend on each other.
Fedee asserted that if tourism does poorly, so would certain areas of the manufacturing industry and agriculture.
“I believe that we have underperformed in the recovery of tourism. A lot of gains that this government is seeing – they’ve done nothing new. Jazz cannot move the needle. How are we going to get the Caribbean people to come here with LIAT and all of its problems? We’re talking about one week – a one-week window. But we have 52 weeks, 365 days in the year for us to fill up the hotel rooms,” the former MP said.
“We have got to move with a lot more haste,” Fedee declared.
Headline photo: Stock image.
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