The Ministry of Tourism and the Tourist Board, for the time being, are putting aside the island’s previously used promotional slogan Anguilla Beyond Extraordinary in favour of Lose the crowd, find yourself. The change, that is still being considered, is part of the new campaign to encourage visitors to the island during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie, told The Anguillian newspaper that although the new slogan was not her brainchild, she had requested her team “to create something that would show persons that Anguilla is a place that feels like home.”
Mrs. Gumbs-Marie, who has been given responsibility for the phased reopening of Anguilla’s tourism industry, by the Executive Council, continued: “Home is one of the places where you can be your true self and you can definitely lose yourself in. That was the intention behind Lose the crowd, find yourself. We have been using the slogan Beyond Extraordinary but right now Lose the crowd, find yourself is just the campaign for our Covid era – but the Covid era might last a very long so the working thought is: do we just adopt this for where we are right now? And we will be making that decision.”
Speaking about the new temporary slogan, Minister of Tourism, Mr. Haydn Hughes, observed: “I think that is a beautiful slogan and we should adopt it. In 2006 we moved from Tranquillity wrapped in Blue, which was a phenomenal tagline, to Feeling is Believing. The rationale behind that, at the time, was that Anguilla had changed somewhat and that Tranquillity wrapped in Blue was not real; but for Anguilla that slogan will always be real. In some instances we still use Tranquillity wrapped in Blue because we used that for so many years. That was hatched in 1980/81 by Mr. David Carty.
“Recently, we have been using the tagline Beyond Extraordinary. But Lose the crowd, find yourself – whether or not it is covid – is indicative of who we are. We are a very low-density destination and, because of that, you will never find a crowd in Anguilla, even when we have full capacity. That means wherever persons are in the world they have lost the crowd and they are here in this tranquil environment. I think this is quite fitting and is something we can move on with in the foreseeable future.”
Asked what the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourist Board were doing during the time leading up to November 1, and the days following the reopening of tourism, the Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs. Gumbs-Marie, replied: “You can expect to see our faces a lot more on video because we have a lot of information videos for the general public to have an idea of what phase two of the reopening will look like. You will see more tourist movements but those movements will be guided by protocols.”
Another question by the newspaper, regarding the readiness of Anguilla to safely handle the arrival of tourists to the island, was responded to by Mr. Hughes who stated: “We have built the capacity at the Princess Alexandra Hospital tremendously – not only in terms of testing capacity but also in human resource capacity. So we are ready – but we don’t foresee, unless persons are extremely careless, that we will have any covid virus among our community. I think the team in Anguilla have done a tremendous job. Over six hundred persons have come to our shores since the onset of Covid-19, and we have done safely. So I trust the ability of the team to manage our reopening.”
Questioned about the training of hotel and villa workers, to interact with tourists, Mrs. Gumbs-Marie stated: “To date, we have trained four hundred and fifty service employees from housekeeping to concierge, chefs, persons in the entertainment industry, pilots, boat operators, ground transportation, etc. We are encouraging otherpersons to get the training because at first persons believed that they had to be associated with a property in order to get the training. But the training is for whoever may happen to come into contact with the hospitality industry.”
Commenting on tourist arrivals in Anguilla so far, and the response to the island’s protocols, Minister Hughes said: “We have had a number of tourists coming to our shores. As you know, there was a big ‘dust up’ about over a high-profile tourist, recently, and that tourist did everything that was authorised. Everything that tourist embarked upon – whether it was the usage of his yacht or dining on an offshore cay – all the protocols were submitted and approved before he came to Anguilla. So there was nothing untoward, and he did not break any of the quarantine regulations whatsoever. Even within these particular bubbles there is some opportunity for movement. If someone is staying at Zemi Beach, for example, and that person wants to play golf, the golf and the ground transportation are booked – and having played the person can return to the property. All of this is sanctioned. However, persons can lose their certification if they were to take a detour to Ken’s Barbecue, for example, and there may be some penalties involved as well. I don’t think anybody is going to risk their personal health and the well-being of the island…”
On the matter of employees returning to work, the Minister noted that, for the past seven months, they were without any income. “I think they are excited to go back to work but, as long as they ensure that they take personal responsibility to protect themselves, and their families at home, I believe all will go well. I truly trust that persons will be vigilant – and with persons taking up the telephone and reporting seeing certain persons on the island, you can tell that everybody is vigilant.”
