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2013
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January
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- UNDP Programme Officer Mary Wilfred says, “Dream, ...
- SPORTS AWARDS 2012: NOMINEES (PART 2)
- Greed Versus Need
- Golf: Zanaii Taylor and Johnathan Bruce Top Januar...
- VAT on Medication – Another Backward Step by the G...
- UWP on passing of Wilfred St. Clair-Daniel
- Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs to visit
- Police Seeks Assistance
- Parliament mourns loss of Past Speaker
- Education Conference
- Crime and Violence: Caribbean Economies Feel the Pain
- More Jazzy Jazz?
- Seventeen-year-old Shot In Hip
- Missing!
- Government and TUF Head for Another Round
- FAREWELL!
- Body Found Under Sand Barge
- Junior Achievement Regional Director Pays a Courte...
- Jennifer Gaston – Shaping the St. Lucia She Wants ...
- Why we don’t need cabinet doctors
- Nation Building 1
- Caribbean Input on the Post-2015 Global Developmen...
- The Commandments – Holy, Just & Good
- Prayers For Families
- Island Neighbours
- “Father Earth” - Tree’s Company
- Consuelo Dupal Leaves Island For Miss Internationa...
- VSADC: Youth Academy Re - opens for 2013 Season
- St.Lucia Athlete Overseas Based: Huge Day for Make...
- Sports Awards 2012: Nominees (Part 1)
- South Castries Fourth Coca Cola Championship
- EVENING OF EXCELLENCE
- Petroleum Price Change Effective 28th January, 2013
- New Hotels Planned For St. Lucia
- Independence Showcase Programme Change
- Former NFL Football stars visit St. Lucia for Big ...
- Basic Health (S)care
- 1000 Words
- An important lesson to be learnt
- St. Lucian Josette Edwards in United States for Fe...
- Soufriere Cops Burn Ganja Plots
- NWU/Sea Island Cotton Shop Agreement
- Body Found Near Choc Beach
- ARREST WARRANT TREATY
- UWI Mourns The Passing Of Distinguished Alumna, Ma...
- LIME Helps to Showcase Saint Lucia Business Awards...
- Karib Cable Awards A Loyal Customer with a Hamper
- Karib Cable Rewards Customer $1000 for December 2012
- Karib Cable Awards A Lucky Customer with a Hamper
- Free after 5 SMS and regional pass only with Digicel
- ECFH Supports Nobel Laureate Week
- Digicel rewards another weekly winner
- Supercharge Your Goals To Ensure Success In 2013
- Know the Labour Act # 3 will deal with Contracts o...
- How To Keep Your Job
- Helping small businesses to be sustainable can mak...
- Help Our Ship “St Lucia” Is Running Aground! Part 2
- Governor of ECCB Presents Report on Performance of...
- Market Watch
- EnterpreneurialDevelopment through Quality-mindedn...
- Daily Markets Wrap Up – Friday, January 25th, 2013
- What a Wick: the last 7 days in 14 ( 19th – 25th J...
- The Diabetic Foot Continued
- The client/lawyer relationship
- The Church Talks Creative Arts
- The Ambiguity Of The Attack
- Open house and Launch of “RAISE A READER SLU®” Cam...
- Mitigating the Impacts of Threats to Our Native Ig...
- Jamaica Hospitality recognizes Allen Chastanet
- ‘ICAN’ Technology brings Tablets and Laptops to th...
- Developing St. Lucia’s Cultural Exports
- Conflicts can always be managed and resolved with ...
- Children With Special Needs In Saint Lucia: (Part ...
- C.A.R.E.’s Programmes: A Fascinating Expansion – T...
- 60,000 Plus to Vote in Grenada’s Elections
- WICB Board of Directors’ decisions from January 18...
- Rugby: Titanic Clash St. Lucia versus BVI Today
- Minister for Youth Development and Sports says, “P...
- MARBEQ AND KAMILLAH RULE
- 2nd Kia Independence Tennis Championship to Serve ...
- Morne Lay-by Upgraded
- With Excellence in Mind…
- What Is Evil?
- We need to develop home-grown industries
- Under The Microscope
- The Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) P...
- The cost of paying attention
- Shout out to the boys and girls on the block—even ...
- President Obama: The man unveiled
- Political Malaise in Saint Lucia
- Obama takes his second oath
- La Toc Cemetery –A National Disgrace
- Begging at the Inland Revenue for Refunds
- Electricity Rate Debate
- Two Bodies Found
- P.M. TO KING: “APOLOGIZE”
- Grande Riviere Man Charged
- Daily Markets Wrap Up – Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
- Diamonds International University – Diamontology G...
- CDF Coodinator Barbara Du Boulay
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January
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17 comments:
There is an inordinate concern for, or even an obsession with numbers.
OK. The revenue side of the tourism equation is important. This today has become the life-blood of this economy, which unfortunately appears to be on the way to the ICU.
Nevertheless, our obsessing over the arrival numbers and occupancy levels together reinforces the soft bigotry that Saint Lucians' participation is good enough, only for the lower-level, low-wage, and low-paying jobs in the main cylinder of this economy.
This is so revulsingly myopic!
Too much dependence on tourism. It is an unreliable sector as it depends on visitor arrivals which is uncontrollable. We need to get into manufacturing. Taiwan a very industrialized nation can help us in this regard. We can begin to can every fruit produced on the island. Given a market the farmers will produce. We need to get back to our hard working ways which kept the youths engaged and therefore away from criminal activity. Tourism dependence has turned alot into husslers, even beggers and has domesticated the population.
When you have been in business long enough you know when "bullshit baffles brains".
These guys simply do not want to say that tourism is down because their paymasters cannot handle the truth that they (SLP) have NEVER shown the ability to generate any increased revenues in St. Lucia by their policies.
Phillip was a failure at tourism as was that complete waste of time Menissa. And let us not talk about the clown masquarading as a Tourism Minister - what a laugh
!
The UK market is going to be under serious pressure with indications that it is going into a THIRD recession already.
The USA is feeling the pressure of Obama's attack on business and the liberals destruction of the society's fundamental values system supported by 99% of African Americans and Caribbean people - so called Christians.
With the trillion dollar printing of money by the Japanese, Germany the Chinese, the USA and the UK to keep their currancies low to be able to compete on the world market there will soon be an all out recession as confusion reigns.
The SLP have absolutely no answers for this especially led by that narcissistic , clueless incompetent who has finally run out of other people's money to throw around like manure.
2013 is going to be an interesting year! Maybe we might strike oil !
Opps - I forget Kenny already signed off on out possible oil deposits and we are in arbitration for years at a cost of millions.
Which reminds me - where are the Unions protesting about that ?
Opps - agin I forgot - -Kenny has them in his back pocket and they put him there.
Oh well I guess we just have to pay the VAT and go on with our business and try not to go bankrupt !
That's all that the bull-shitter and farce can do--- bull-shitting.
And the worse thing is that he does not even realize that he is only bull-shitting himself.
What mix bag? Tourism was a total failure in 2012 and Louis lewis in a first world country you would have been called to resign for incompetence. Its like the blind leading the blind. I am looking forward to 2013 however will be pressuring you to give the real story on 2012.
Congrates to the blogger above who seems to be one of the few not taken in by the talk of the Labour Party. Always has pertinent answers to the truth we want to know.
Keep it up !
About $40 million, annually, to promote St.Lucia abroad is insane.
With over 20 years of jazz; two noble laureates; the world famous Pitons; the best port (as in Port Castries) in the Caribbean; the best outdoor food market in the Caribbean and the only drive-in volcano in the world; there shouldn't be a need to spend so much on advertising.
Instead, about half of that promotional budget should go to improving and beautifying main street Anse La Ray; main street Canaries; and main street Soufriere; after all, every visitor to the island wants to visit the Pitons; and sea and air should not be the best way to see the Pitons. It's time to clean-up the villages along the land route.
Very good point.
Instead, about half of that promotional budget should go to improving and beautifying main street Anse La Ray; main street Canaries; and main street Soufriere; after all, every visitor to the island wants to visit the Pitons; and sea and air should not be the best way to see the Pitons. It's time to clean-up the villages along the land route.
January 23, 2013 at 3:09 AM
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Writer, this up there represents what those very familiar with the industry recoganize as being part and parcel of the what is called 'destination image'.
That is why, for example, well-manicured roadways are essentially part of our tourism product.
That said, we cannot expect the OECS Secretariat to take the same deep level of interest in the generation of statistics critical to the strategic direction of our economy as we would, if we know and serious about measuring what is important for our economic survival and well-being.
By now, what our Statistical Departmentin the generation of relevant statistics, if the Governments of the day, since the collapse of the banana industry had their fingers on the key issues that currently matter in this economy, would be:
a) Continuously and aggressively generating, with quarterly reports the optimal tourism receipts necessary for servicing the financial needs of this economy, in terms of its minimal financial contribution.
b) Continuously monitoring and aggressively reporting on the receipts from the sector at least on a quarterly basis, in terms of a desired but annual financial target, in addition to monitoring for correction, such indicators as the rate of inflation since the VAT.
What the above two measures patently indicate is that our past and present ministers of tourism, have largely been shooting and operating in the dark.
Tourism is our business. We cannot expect others to do our work for us. Yet, when it is even more difficult to measure the net receipts we are up the creek without a paddle without hard data -- even provisional data, if the decision makers can appreaciate how to use this kind of data.
This begs the question: How on earth are you going to effectively manage any enterprise if you are not aggressively engaged (a) feedforward control, with measures in place that will prevent bad things from happening; concurrent control, with data on ongoing performance provided on an extremely timely basis what is actually happening with RELIABLE and verifiable data, that allow us to take immediate steps, as the performance data are being observed, to shore up any weakness in the performance of the main engine of this economy; and (c) the medium- to long-term feedback control measures to rectify structural problems in this vital tourism sector.
Boasts of marketing expenditures without effective monitoring of effectiveness, that also lack specificity in targeting audiences that will respond positively and effectively to the marketing communication or ad placements, are not only (a)wasteful in terms of our already parlous financial position, but also (b) an egregious escalation of commitment to lost causes and financial blackholes.
Why is there such an obssession with tourism to the exclusion of other initiatives we could be supporting. Walk around Rodney Bay and the derth of tourists is marked, the effect on local businesses is alarming.
What about Agroproccessing, e.g. all the fruit that is wasted for example, then what is sent abroad is returned at high prices + vat for the supermarkets to sell; its full of sugar and other less healthy stuff, and diabetes in St. Lucia is frightenning.
I understnd it is a rare event for hotels to have more than 60% occupancy is this an acceptable figure?
Having high crime levels, a dreadful mentallity i.e. that every tourist is there to be mugged, either by vendors (too high prices) or thieves will bring tourism down. The customer service is appalling, people are allowed to treat tourists as jokes, displaying appaling manners, not even showing respect and listenning to people, looking bored; all the things those who have chips on shoulders accuse the tourists of; not even a valid argument.
If you want to be Independant, and not keep expecting other countries to provide then utilise what is made and grown locally, provide canning factories, have your own milk herds, the list is endless but the apathy towards these initiatives is shocking!
Do NOT cast the blame for the lack of agro-processing in Saint Lucia on the current administration.
If anything, the current situation confirms Mr. Errol Barrow's observation, that Mr. Compton knew very little about economics.
Throw your thoughts back at the achievements of the 30 years and the use of the large guaranteed revenues from banana production.
No effort was made to diversify the economy. Our educational system was geared to produce more banana PRODUCERS, without any thought of our school system producing technologists or engineers.
Agro-production depends on a technological substrate in education and practice.
The highest level of exposure to technology-based education was rather largely INFORMAL in the field of auto-repairs.
Look at the irony of it all.
We import canned or processed agro-based products and food.
We had to 'import' a Guyanese to put the 'Made in Saint Lucia' stamp on processed agro-based food products in Saint Lucia.
Further, our education and assessment system, even with CXC, does NOT encourage innovation NOR creativity.
Far worse, are the products emerging from tertiary-level education institutions.
We still reward only book learning. Therefore, even if someone gets a doctorate entitled, 'The mating behaviour of Carlifornia sand flies', we automatically consider that this person is most suitable to become our Minister of Finance.
Whereas, the technological content of what is produced in an economy is highly correlated with the GDP growth and wealth-creation that economy, the naffins we vote into our parliament are neither aware, nor do they have the capacity, the capability, or the leadership skills necessary to guide Saint Lucia in this strategic direction or towards this horizon.
I recently visited Atlanta Ga on business and I can tell you, that there are alot of people wanting to visit St. Lucia but there is no visible marketing here. They need to set up shop here and tell people to visit and if there is a marketing drive present, they need to do a much better job. The market is there but the marketers are absent.
LOuis louis or whatever his name is is a total and incompetent joke. Four ps of marketing - price, promotion, product and place- guess which p is missing. You are right promotion. Nothing happening here in the States. I see visibility on the part of Barbados, Jamaica, T and T, even Dominica but no freaking SL. There has been NO strategic alliances established by this ass and LOrne Theophilus is absolutely a square peg in a round hole. How the hell can this guy bring anything to the table? How?
The director of tourism needs to go direct something else - fullstop. Bring back the grey haired guy they had before him - hillary modeste.
These two guys appear to be doing nothing else but warming their seats. One definitely has the expression of what am I doing here?
Have you started to think what the reports of crime and murders that are happening in St Lucia is doing to St Lucia?People from all walks of life and visitors do not feel safe in St Lucia when they know of people being murdered and the families still waiting for justice. Spending money on campaigns does not solve the problems. St Lucia now is now considered to be similar to Jamaica with crime. Bad press spreads quicker than anything and the damage is done.
Time to set examples with the offenders and show the world that St Lucia knows they have a problem but is not accepting any nonsense and these people will get the punishment they deserve now and not in 3 - 4 years. Hang a few and show you mean business.
Do not bury your heads in the sands - wake up.
Let me first say that this is one of the few blogs where I've seen some intelligent posts on the topic at hand and not only insults and party hacks blaming one party or the other.
As one of the bloggers said, we have a lot going for us in St. Lucia (pitons, nobel laureates etc) that should allow us to market and promote ourselves without the $40 million price tag. In my opinion, we are not getting a good enough return on the investment in tourism.
Secondly, St. Lucians on the whole don't realize tourism's potential impact on the island's economy. Tourism involves all of us making the visitors feel welcome and safe. That includes vendors, police, school children, the ordinary man and woman on the street. It involves all of us, not just the people directly working in the hotels and 'tourist spots".
We have not really taken advantage of sports tourism although there has been a little movement there. We haven't gotten on the "green" trend when the rest of the world has been there for a while. We ignore the environment and are building hotels at the base of the pitons. Look how dirty the drains and rivers are. We completely missed the organic food trend which is just sad. We're importing things that can be grown in St. Lucia. We do not see the connections between things. We just think we need to provide the tourists with a place to stay and food to eat (usually what they can get at home).
We don't have any strategic plan. We just throw things at an issue and hope something sticks. There are people in the Min of Tourism who are getting paid a lot of money and I can't really see the impact of what they're doing.
Anyway, good posts.
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