As fate would have it, just on the eve of the announcement that Anguilla had won the enviable title of “Best Island in the Caribbean” that one of its main promoters, Mrs. Marie Walker, unfortunately passed away.
She was a long-time tourism agent for the island, having represented the Anguilla Tourist Board in North America from 2004 to 2013 through her company Turnstyle Marketing.
In March 2018 she was appointed Director of Sales for the Anguilla Tourist Board – at the ATB’s New York Office – overseeing the marketing of the island in North America, including organising and holding road shows and bringing travel and incentive groups to Anguilla. She was last in Anguilla in November 2018 for the reopening of Resorts and Residences at CuisinArt.
Commenting on the passing of Mrs. Walker, Anguilla’s Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, Mr. Cardigan Connor, told The Anguillian newspaper:
“She loved Anguilla over the years. In fact she was due here this week, bringing a group on a fam [familiarisation] trip to Anguilla. Marie had been ill, I think, from November. We will get more details as time goes on, but she refused to give up. She wanted to go out there and to do the job for the island that she loved. Her passing came as a shock to many of us, and I suppose that whenever something like that happens one tends to have a look inwardly and asks: what really is life? I think we need to tell people around us that we love them.
“Marie was larger than life. When we talk about our success – that Anguilla has been rated the number one island, in the Caribbean, for the past three years – we owe a lot to Marie. She had been on the road selling Anguilla with a passion. She has been bringing visitors here, and for a number of years she promoted Anguilla as it were her own. In fact, it was her adopted island.
“She will be solely missed but, knowing Marie as I did, she would want us to raise a glass and say she has had a good ending. For a number of years she headed our North American Office, for the Anguilla Tourist Board, and in recent times she was marketing Anguilla. She was working along with Noel Mignot and Alison Ross from the PM Group. They have known each other for a number of years and shared very much in common – loving the island they represented. For them it will be tough.
“The Premier and I will go to New York and will be able to tell people how much she meant to us in Anguilla. We don’t have to say it to too many people because everybody knows what she meant to Anguilla.”
