| The Valley Street Festival at the People’s Market was a beehive of activity as the Ministry of Tourism, the Anguilla Tourist Board and the Hotel & Tourism Association combined their efforts to launch Tourism Week 2011. The opening fair and festive event, last weekend, was dubbed “A Taste of the Islands”. It was an attractive mixture of steel pan music, arts and crafts booths and food stalls, all creating a fine display of the cultural and tourism aspects of life in Anguilla and other parts of the region. |
The event, as the theme indicated, was especially aimed at drawing attention to the leading role Anguilla has long had as a regional destination in the tourism marketplace, and the importance of re-reasserting that position. Director of Tourism, Candis Niles, made that point when, at the opening ceremony, she said that this year Tourism Week was being celebrated under the theme “Re-establishing the Pillars of Excellence”. She stressed that “those pillars are our Product, our Position, our People and our Partnerships.”
She went on: “What we mean by product, you might ask. Our product is what it is that we are inviting visitors to come to Anguilla and experience. Our incredibly white sand beaches, washed by azure blue crystalline waters are unsurpassed by anywhere in the Caribbean; our wonderful eclectic cuisine, our range of accommodations which include five-star award-winning luxury hotels and resorts, our charming escape collections; our guest houses and inns and, of course, our ultra luxury villas. But most important of all, Anguilla is recognised worldwide for its people.
“We used to enjoy a reputation as one of the most sought-after destinations in the Caribbean. Today, we have to ask ourselves is this still the case? Do we continue to enjoy the image of an island that visitors all over the world aspire to? And then we have our people. They represent our most precious resource, and if we are not doing what we need to do, ensure that Anguillians are prepared in every way to take their place in this industry, we are doomed for failure. That last part of the theme is partnerships because we achieve so much more when we … pool our resources together. And so we need to refocus the attention of all our partners here in Anguilla on the importance of working as one.”
President of the Hotel & Tourism Association, Sherille Hughes, who spoke along the same lines, said that for many years Anguilla was the envy of the Caribbean. “Anguilla was held up as a wonderful example of how a small island chose to develop a high quality, targeted, unique, authentically Caribbean, eminently sustainable tourism product,” she recalled. She noted, however, that there were some people who believed that such a highly-sought-after image was becoming compromised.
“Let’s face it,” Mrs. Hughes continued. “Anguilla can no longer be held up as a shining example of excellence – not with failed tourism projects marring our beautiful shorelines; not with non-starter developments; not with the very public declaration of bankruptcies; and not, certainly, with the ongoing, endlessly discussed and debated legal issues with the hotel that has been for years held up as the flagship hotel in Anguilla. Unfortunate business scenarios such as these are taking their toll on the world’s perception of Anguilla.”
The well-spoken and long-experienced owner and management executive of Paradise Cove Resort however sounded a welcome note of hope when she stated as follows: “This is not to say that all is lost – not by any stretch of the imagination. Anguilla is still an amazing, authentic, beautiful, friendly, relatively un-spoilt, totally unique Caribbean island. Today, we are still welcoming first-time visitors to our shores who are absolutely blown away by the tranquility and serenity of the destination, the genuine warmth and friendliness of our people, and the unhurried, uncomplicated way of life that leads people to say ‘It’s the way a vacation used to be.’ “It can be said that the global recession had one positive result on Anguilla. It stopped us from building many thousands of rooms we did not have the staff or infrastructure to support. I believe that Anguilla has a second chance, and now is the time for us to take stock and for us to examine what we have done wrong and rectify it. We can start by examining the four pillars of our theme: Product, Position, People and Partnerships.” The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association President emphasised that the island’s people were required to define what they perceived Anguilla’s product to be; and what should be the true measure of excellence for that perception to become a reality, acceptable by themselves and desirable by all visitors. “We cannot afford to rest on our laurels,” Mrs. Hughes concluded. “We must fight to once again be considered excellent in the arena of Caribbean tourism. Together we can re-create an excellent tourism product that will not only generate prosperity for all of us, but also ensure a sustainable future for generations of Anguillians, yet to come.” |
