St Kitts is within the midst of a tourism renaissance, buoyed by a brand new sustainability-fueled tourism branding and new flights from carriers like JetBlue. This summer time, the island tapped a brand new CEO to guide its subsequent tourism push: trade veteran Kelly Fontenelle, who has greater than 25 years of expertise within the tourism and occasion administration area. Fontenelle, the previous director of selling for the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority, is seeking to leverage her abilities to boost St Kitts’ journey consciousness, deepen the impression of tourism on the island and push the vacation spot into burgeoning markets. Right here’s what she needed to say in a current interview with Caribbean Journal.
What have you ever realized about St Kitts to date and the place do you see the island proper now?
After I first arrived in St Kitts, I acquired that heat feeling. It offers you that heat, calm feeling and I believe that resonates in your entire vacation spot and the folks. So it’s a really calm vacation spot. So I believe guests who come get that very same sort of feeling. I’ve additionally realized that the meals is superb as a result of it’s nearly like a melting pot. We have now so many various nationalities on the island, a whole lot of expats, so that you get that within the meals as effectively.
I believe culinary journey needs to be a giant factor for the island ultimately as a result of we’ve got some actually good eating places. I’ve not had a nasty meal since I’ve been on the island and after I got here on, we had Restaurant Week [the island’s annual culinary event] as effectively, and I believe Restaurant Week could be very effectively executed. It’s a fantastic occasion and it includes locals and guests alike and I believe it’s an occasion that could possibly be expanded properly and create a buzz for the island.
What would you say are your huge priorities on the outset for St Kitts Tourism?
I believe St. Kitts is called a giant cruise vacation spot, so I believe one in all my huge priorities is to make the vacation spot on all-year-round trip spot and never simply the season. So each cruise and keep over. Â We wish it to be a vacation spot folks consider for all yr spherical, the place anytime of the yr you may come to St. Kitts and have a superb time.
Are there specific niches of tourism that you simply assume have essentially the most potential for development?
We have now quite a bit, really. As I stated earlier than, culinary is one and it’s simple to entry, particularly since we’ve got Restaurant Week that we’ve had for a few years. Vacation spot weddings are one other space. This can be a lovely island. We have now so many beautiful iconic spots.. So romance, romance and vacation spot consciousness. Wellness. I believe wellness is a market that we might positively look into once more as a result of all of our infrastructure and all that we’ve got to supply with regards to wellness. You possibly can do yoga within the park. We have now the [Mount Liamuiga] volcano, we’ve got the clear, contemporary air, and in order that’s one other one which we are able to search for.
We have now gained the Caribbean’s Greatest Dive Vacation spot by the World Journey Awards three years in a row. The divers who come right here adore it. assume dive is the market that we’re going to look to see extra development, and assist reinforce that all-year-round picture. Additionally eco-adventure. It’s a mountainous island. There’s a lot to do on land and underwater as effectively.
St. Kitts doesn’t have any all-inclusive motels. And that works in our favor, as a result of we wish the shoppers to get out of the resort and discover the vacation spot, immerse within the tradition, meet the locals, take pleasure in some group tourism and actually really feel that you simply went to an island and had a trip.
We’ve seen good airlift development in recent times, most notably with the JetBlue flight. How do you see that persevering with? What sort of hopes do you’ve gotten for rising extra airlift to St Kitts?
With the introduction of JetBlue for the North American market, we’ve seen the expansion and the flights are doing fairly effectively. It has introduced us a unique set of tourists coming to St. Kitts. So we’ve got JetBlue three days every week and I do know it’s going to develop. Finally, we need to get to every day service and ultimately get Mint service after which get nonstop out of Boston as soon as that begins rising.
You will have been form of one of many main advocates for journey brokers within the Caribbean. Are you able to discuss that and the way vital journey brokers are to your development in St Kitts?
I believe a whole lot of us — I at all times knew their significance, however I believe we noticed the significance throughout Covid and after Covid, how dependable they’re. And I believe journey brokers could possibly be the important thing to selling the vacation spot as a result of they are often our ambassadors.
While you work with a journey agent and educate them and provides them the instruments that they should promote your vacation spot, they’ll carry on recommending and carry on promoting it. I’m a giant advocate for working with journey brokers nevertheless it’s all about educating them, giving them the instruments that they want and at all times participating them as a result of journey brokers, when you’re there to assist them, they’ll assist you.
In order you stated, I’m a giant advocate for them. I like working with my journey agent companions as a result of they’ll work with you. So we train them the vacation spot first after which the motels will come, as a result of the shopper has to remain someplace.
We simply launched a brand new program for them not too long ago, the SKY program, or St Kitts Your Method, and it was only a approach for them to return and expertise the island on their very own. We offer some instruments, allow them to know what to do, the place to develop, after which they’ll then return and promote St Kitts — as a result of via my community of journey brokers, a whole lot of them have by no means offered St Kitts. They know little or no in regards to the island, so it’s about all of us experiencing and placing on some extra FAM journeys. We are going to do some vacation spot FAM journeys, however for now, we need to allow them to come on their very own and we’ll facilitate them whereas they need to come to the island. As a result of once more, with journey brokers, you see the ROI.
St. Kitts has had a robust occasion historical past, particularly with the Music Competition. Do you see extra development in that space?
Sure. The music pageant was superb and it’s one of many main festivals within the Caribbean and even the world. Our motels are ful. The airline really places in additional flights for that week [of the festival]. And we really feel that there’s extra that could possibly be achieved for shoppers to benefit from the vacation spot. We don’t need them to return only for the music pageant, we wish them to return and discover the island after which, oh by the way in which, there’s this music pageant occurring as effectively. So we wish it to be that they arrive to expertise the vacation spot, that the music pageant is simply the icing on the cake.
Who’s the the standard customer to St Kitts proper now and the way is that evolving?
The standard customer for St Kitts is the extra mature shopper. St Kitts is called a luxurious vacation spot, so that you sometimes discover a shopper who has the disposable revenue. I believe that may change with us doing much more social media, and with Gen X and millennials seeing how Instagrammable our vacation spot is, for instance. We have now the Marriott and the Park Hyatt, which is extra household based mostly, however we’ll see just a little bit extra solo vacationers as effectively as a result of influencers are likely to journey on their very own to do the content material. So I believe that may herald a unique kind of clientele, a youthful clientele to the island.
The place would you wish to see St. Kitts a few years from now? What would you wish to see the island turn into?
I might like to see St Kitts being an all-year-round vacation spot and having no completely no shoulder interval. In the case of airlift, we’d have just a little bit extra airlift, extra nonstop airlift from main markets within the US like we have already got with Atlanta.
I might like to see how one thing out of Boston or the Midwest, one thing out of the West Coast. The thought is to have arrivals all year long, as a result of tourism is our primary income generator and having a shoulder interval impacts our folks. So having the ability to do all yr spherical, having guests all yr spherical with 90, one hundred pc load issue on the airways or all yr spherical is one thing I might like to see.
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