St. Kitts Minister Of Tourism Marsha Henderson talks to Travel Track about sustainability, accommodations, festivals, culinary, rum and summer tourism on the Caribbean island.
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00:00You know, Saint Kitts is sort of that unique oasis.
00:29But it has so many things that are uniquely its own.
00:33From your perspective, but also looking at the business of what obviously Saint Kitts
00:39is, could you talk to those two elements, both just sort of your perspective, but then
00:45an outwardly perspective in that way?
00:48Right.
00:49For me, Saint Kitts is the closest thing to paradise.
00:54As you say, it happens to be the perfect blend for visitors, because we offer options for
01:00relaxation as well as options for adventure.
01:04And so we think we appeal to all visitors, actually, and we are known for our warm hospitality
01:12of vibrant and rich culture and history here in Saint Kitts, and of course, our breathtaking
01:19landscapes.
01:20We're nicely nestled in the Eastern Caribbean.
01:25And we're very easy to get here to Saint Kitts, very easy to get here to Saint Kitts, actually.
01:39You know, you deal with civil aviation, too.
01:41So you have to know how to...
01:44Could you talk about that and sort of the ease and trying to make that whole idea easier?
01:49Because it's about getting there, getting through and enjoying your time there.
01:53You know, obviously, you were brought in, you know, post-COVID, but everything's so
01:57much changed since then, too, correct?
02:00Right.
02:01And so since our COVID, we've increased our efforts to increase lifts to the destination.
02:08And so we have nonstop flights daily from Miami.
02:13And we also have JetBlue out of JFK.
02:17And this is three times weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sunday.
02:21We also have lifts out of Atlanta and out of Canada as well, and Newark.
02:29And so we continue our efforts to make sure that it's easy to get to Saint Kitts as well.
02:44Well, to ask that, I mean, because it's interesting seeing those feeder markets.
02:48What do you find people are looking for?
02:50And does it range generationally between the young, the, you know, obviously in their middle
02:56age and the older?
02:57Is there...
02:58Where do you...
02:59What have you found as far as appealing to these demographics?
03:01Right.
03:03And so what we found post-COVID is that our visitors were looking for immersive type experiences.
03:10And so we've created a product here in Saint Kitts where our visitors can actually immerse
03:15themselves in the destination.
03:17So what separates us actually from other sun destinations is all the other things that
03:23Saint Kitts has to offer in terms of adventure, history, culture, and even culinary.
03:30And so we like to say to our visitors, venture deeper into Saint Kitts.
03:35We've seen a change in demographics as well.
03:38We've seen solar travelers and even more younger travelers as well.
03:44Usually we would see those ranging from maybe 45 upwards, you know, but now we're seeing
03:50an interest from younger travelers as well for the destination.
04:09To go into a microcosm of that, you were mentioning three.
04:13I think you said one was history, one was culinary, and maybe one was adventure.
04:18I believe.
04:19I'm not sure.
04:20Adventure.
04:21Yeah.
04:22Could you go into a microcosm of that, like, and give an example if you have one of those
04:27like different experiences, like if it's at a historical house or adventure, if it's ziplining,
04:33if you might, because people, sometimes they don't know quite what that means, per se.
04:38Right.
04:39So for adventure, I would recommend the Rum Master Experience.
04:44For me, it's adventurous because it's a tour that provides for the visitor, it's two phases
04:51of the tour.
04:52The first, of course, is the theoretical aspect of the tour, where you go and you learn the
04:56rich history of rum and sugar, and even how life was on the plantation here in St. Kitts.
05:03So it starts at Wingfield Estate, where we preserved the estate, and visitors get the
05:09opportunity to walk the estate, see the ruins, and actually experience what cultivating and
05:15making sugar, how we did that.
05:17Then the second phase of the tour happens to be at Reggae Beach.
05:22And you go there, you create your own cocktail.
05:25So it's more, not the theoretical part, but actually the physical part where you go and
05:30you actually create your own cocktail.
05:33It's nicely done on Reggae Beach, and Nevis is seen in the, you can actually see Nevis
05:39on the other side.
05:40And forgive me, it's not Reggae Beach, it's actually Spice Mill on the southeast, yes.
05:53And then the culinary, what have you found with that?
06:03So definitely culinary, we have a number of farm-to-table experiences.
06:09And so you can actually go to the farm, eat what we actually grow on the farm.
06:14And so we have that at Liomega Natural Farms.
06:18There's a farm-to-table experience there as well.
06:20And there's the ocean-to-fork experience down at Arthur's.
06:24So you actually eat the lobster, the catch of the day, the fish, the conch, freshly-catched
06:30conch and fish and lobster, and you can actually eat there at Arthur's.
06:35It's on the beach, breathtaking views of Stayshire and the St. Bats, which are islands that are
06:41very close to St. Kitts.
06:43And so culinary here is diverse.
06:46We even have the local food, which is our cook-up or sauce or what we call blood pudding.
06:53We have all of that here.
06:54So it ranges from local to gourmet dining.
06:58And so it's very diverse.
07:00We're known, and luckily for us, our culinary is actually tied to our history here in St.
07:05Kitts.
07:06And so even in our food, you can experience our story about who we are as the people,
07:12the culture, and the history here in St. Kitts through our culinary as well.
07:28Specific sort of really focus in what you're talking about, you know, and on top of that,
07:33I would ask about obviously the accommodation features, because obviously you're going to
07:36have some of the bigger ones, but you probably have very authentic accommodation experiences
07:42I would think as well.
07:43Can you talk about that?
07:44Because that keys into the history, that keys into the food, that keys into the landscape.
07:49Absolutely.
07:50And interestingly, what you did not mention as well is our feature on sustainability.
07:55So we have a wide range of properties offered here on St. Kitts.
07:59We have the boutique-style hotels.
08:01We have the five-star hotels.
08:03We have, like I mentioned, Ly Omega Farm.
08:06We have the cottage rustic type of experience where our visitors can actually go unplug.
08:12There is no service, internet service here.
08:17You actually eat from the farm and you just get to disconnect.
08:21So we have, outside the Ly Omega Farms, you can actually stay there.
08:25We have the Marriott.
08:26We have five-star brands like Park Hyatt, and we also have sustainable properties.
08:31A lot of them are emerging where our properties actually have a number of sustainable practices.
08:38We find that a lot of visitors are actually looking to that as well to make sure that
08:43they themselves are contributing to the sustainability of the industry and the destination.
08:49Is there one sustainable property that jumps out to you beyond the farm we talked about?
08:54That's Sunset Reef, and that property actually won Sustainable Property of the Year this
09:00year.
09:01So Sunset Reef.
09:02So you can look it up and you would find all the sustainable features as well that relates
09:07to Sunset Reef.
09:19And then, obviously, we're in summer, and I wanted to key in on that, obviously.
09:24People love just running in for the weekend or coming for festivals.
09:27There's probably a very diverse amount of festivals.
09:30Are there a couple of festivals this summer that you would recommend that would be easy,
09:34like if people are coming from Miami or Atlanta or New York, for that matter?
09:39Right.
09:40So like I mentioned earlier, the Eastern Kids Music Festival, and you can come in from the
09:45various places you mentioned.
09:46We have the Nevis Mango Festival, which features everything mango, mixed cocktails, food, drink,
09:55and Nevis boasts of having 64 varieties of mangoes.
09:59And so we also have the Nevis Mango Festival, the Eastern Kids Music Festival, and we also
10:04have CPL, which is the Caribbean Premier Cricket League, and it's the biggest party in sports.
10:10That's what we call it.
10:11And that is, it's going to be running from the end of August into September, where we
10:16go and we watch cricket, we party and we drink what we like to drink here, rum, or wine is
10:22your preference.
10:24But we do have the biggest festival in sports, which is CPL as well.
10:28And my last question, thank you so much.
10:55What are you most proud of as the Minister of Tourism that just in terms of the identity
11:01of St. Kitts and how it's evolved, how it continues to evolve?
11:04What are you most proud of, from your perspective?
11:08To me, I am extremely proud of the fact that we continue to be a sustainable destination.
11:14We do have what we call a sustainable destination council.
11:18And we encourage not just only our visitors, but our stakeholders as well to embark on
11:23sustainable practices, whether it relates to the banning of single-use plastic or our
11:28ability to provide our cruise partners with shore power so that there are no emissions
11:36into the air and a number of other sustainable practices for stakeholders like Sunset Reef
11:43just to make sure that within the decades to come that we still have a destination to
11:48sell and a place to live.
11:50So that for me is the thing I'm most proud of and that our people continue to benefit
11:59from this industry as well.