"LOVE SVG" Campaign Launch & Tourism Sector Update

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:10]Heat. Heat.

[00:01:56]house Honorable Dr. Kishaw Shalu, Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development. Dr. Tamira Brown, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development.

[00:03:39]Miss Melissa Balentine, deputy chairperson of the SVG Tourism Authority, board members of the S Vincan Grenardines Tourism Authority.

[00:03:50]Mr. Sean Sland, chief operating officer, S Vincan Grenadines Tourism Authority, representatives of the department's statutory bodies within the remmit of the ministry policy planning and administrative administration department, Department of Tourism, Department of Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development Unit, the St. in San Grand Tourism Authority, national parks, rivers and beaches authority and the zero hunger trust fund members of the media and also we don't want to forget those who are on our online audience. So this morning we are gathered here today for this press conference. We are going to hear some exciting news and updates from the minister Dr. Kishaw Shallow and also we'll be provided with an update on sector performance the present and sorry sector performance and present and a transparent review of the first six months under the new tourism leadership including priorities challenges and the strategy and way forward. So because we want to be very efficient in the use of our time without any further ado. Oh by the way my name is Jamali Jack. I'll be your MC today. I will be guiding you through today's performance. Hopefully we keep it within 75 minutes. So without further ado I would like to invite to the lect turn honorable Dr. Kishar Shall Minister of Tourism.

[00:05:34]Thank you, Jamali.

[00:05:38]Permanent Secretary Dr. Brown, chief operating officer Sean Southerntherland.

[00:05:46]I want to recognize also the board this morning. Um, deputy chair um, Melissa Valentine. I also see Dilla Samuel and Bradley Glasco recognize also director best Andrea Best from civil aviation. Um all the staff representation as usual from sustainable development unit got all right and media and all those invited of course those watching online.

[00:06:22]pleasant. Good morning.

[00:06:25]>> Good morning.

[00:06:30]>> We have um I think is I don't know if he is meant to be here in what capacity, but I think it's only fair that we recognize Senator Jamal Sloum as well.

[00:06:41]Um Senator in Barbados. So, welcome Mr. Soum.

[00:06:48]So this morning is uh I think what we're doing first is to review or reflect on the first 6 months.

[00:07:00]I know we haven't been it's only last night I realized we're not even 6 months fully yet. We started early December, but I I suspect we could we could we could safely say we are being super efficient by being able to provide an update before that 6 month period is has ended. Um so we're going to reflect on the first few months since taking office um and since taking this important portfolio Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development and also later this morning we are going to launch a very exciting initiative but we'll save that for later on and you'll obviously hear from the permanent secretary and COO Sean also. So now since assuming this office I've spent significant time just engaging with industry stakeholders, hotelers, taxi men and women, the yaching industry.

[00:08:12]Um we've spoken to different community groups and partners and it has been really to ensure that whatever policies we come up with are grounded in collaboration and practical outcomes because we can't just sit in our offices and impose on people what we believe the policy should be. And so when we had that stakeholders meeting, it was all to ensure that whatever policies we come up with are informed by their feedback.

[00:08:49]Also when we held the retreat with the staff, it was also to get from you the hardworking team and those of you some of you been there for 15 plus years. Some came in a little newer like myself with new perspective as well. And when you put all that together, you know, we we found that we had put it this way, we are not short of ideas to elevate our tourism product. But ultimately it is to ensure that there's collaboration and that everyone feels included in the process of advancing our country in this sector tourism and some of the practical outcomes that we have accomplished over the last five plus months and allow me to spend the next few minutes listing them. And I know this these are not all. I just going to list a few.

[00:09:45]But very early we launched our new logo.

[00:09:50]And I'm sure some of you didn't even realize that we have changed our logo in the ministry, but we have done so and that is what we we are using currently. Um you will see it later on in one of our presentations, I'm sure.

[00:10:06]As I mentioned, we held stakeholders meeting retreat ensure that the staff were included, feel included. In fact, director best would tell you that I even had a meeting with her staff and quite surprising to me that the staff said that is the first time they've ever had a meeting with the Minister of Civil Aviation. Right.

[00:10:31]Shocking, but that was indeed the case.

[00:10:35]We also held the tourism ignite program to strengthen the reach in secondary schools and we had some 600 students participating.

[00:10:45]I want to thank the teachers as well who attended and and participated in those events. Extremely important as we advance our tourism product to get the young people involved. We also had the tourism youth congress. This year we had eight participants and the winner this year from North Union, Braxton Lewis, um Aaron MD McDonald from Grammar School was second and Zia Glass from GS High School was third. But I want to thank all the teachers, the school principles and everyone who ensured that all those eight students participated and I must say that they represented themselves and their schools very well. I want al also want to applaud our cultural ambassador skinny fabulous uh Gamal Doyle who was there supporting his daughter Zia Glass and who at the end decided to to donate $1,500 to the top three students. I think that was very commendable of him and I think we we did that presentation a couple days ago.

[00:12:02]Civil Aviation continues to roll out a very important program, the aviation management system, which was developed locally by ITSD. Um, very skilled team we have there. And I mean, I was surprised that we only just implementing this quite frankly, director best because everything before this was manual. So you could imagine the tabulation of all these different, you know, figures daily, you know, writing down when flights land and so on, uh, putting them in an Excel sheet and they're all over the place. So this is a great step and I want to commend the leadership of director Andrea Best for leading that process.

[00:12:48]Sustainable development unit, um, they've been working extremely hard as well, um, rolling out quite a few programs. One I want to recognize is the enhanced signage for conservation of sea turtles and recently we saw you know the the the back turtles nesting and also series of workshops to promote national adaptation plans. So commendation as well to that team under the St. convention tourism authority. We recently launched a very significant and indeed a milestone initiative which was the partnership with Vincent Raja Karut the Nazca car racer and so currently our brand is out there to millions of viewers who follow Nazca car racing and that is a six months contract. Um at the end of his season in July, Roger is going to come across to St. Vincent Grenines with his team and that partnership is with Tempo. You all know Tempo network. So that is going to be streamed globally as well. So tremendous coverage for Svention Grenadines. We also had a very successful sailing week 2026 where we doubled registration from previous year. Also we reach so last year we had 1.4 million views. That's how was our reach in 2025.

[00:14:21]This year we reached 10.5 million which represents a 650% increase.

[00:14:31]and further because one one of the things that we ensure we emphasize on was that it must be you know environmental friendly and sustainable and we had a really excellent initiative green campaign to go along with our sailing week SVG and in the end we receive a gold certification so that's again was really great great accomplishment speed I don't think I need to tell you all about that that is still fresh in most of your minds um we reached 2.4 views in a matter of days and that is still trending upwards.

[00:15:07]So that was an incredible um initiative really in a short space of time led by the Ministry of Tourism but had the full support of all the agencies across government and also those in the private sector as well. skinny fabulous also in this case contributing. Um it was through him that the proposal was sent to us and he facilitated it. Um we had the involvement of Rodney Small, one of our cultural ambassadors and you know it was just a total teamwork all the ministries. It could not have been possible without the airport um civil aviation, police, you know, ministry of health even because we know Aisha speed gets a little adventure. So we had to make sure ambulance is there just in case anything you know just total teamwork and the way it flowed you would think that we had months of planning. was literally done the the day before Aisha Speed arrived in St. Benson and the Grenardines. We were at my office at 3:00 a.m. and that same morning putting things together to ensure that everything flowed smoothless so um seamlessly. So again, commendation to every single one who played a part.

[00:16:26]It was a massive success for St. Vincent and the Gren. In fact, um, currently there there's a breakout trend on Google where there's being there there are searches being done for St. Vincent the Grenardines, you know, and the direct the explicit questions being asked what time it is in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, what is the population of St. Vincent Gren? How big is St. Vincent the Grenardines? You know, and these are just people expressing interest through Google. Um, you know, ex and it all happened because of Aisha's speed coming. So, a great initiative.

[00:17:00]Another We have a lot to celebrate in another incredible milestone this year.

[00:17:08]Um, you all I'm I'm suspect everyone in this room and those online are aware of the Caribbean Premier League CPL. For the first time after 13 years, CPL will be coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. And that again is an initiative is a collaboration between the ministry of tourism, the authority and ministry of sport and we are going to ensure that you know cricket in St. ments on how that is like. So we could only expect that you know it is really going to be a massive event and we all looking forward to that. We have had other initiatives well executed on the national parks rivers and beaches authority. They celebrated the 10th anniversary of nine nights and they had a successful Easter egg hunt. Also zero hunger trust fund again they're celebrating 10 year milestone.

[00:18:09]um last last month and the activities are running until October. So a lot of work I mean in in like I said less than six months and the list is not exhausted by any means but we continue to work.

[00:18:22]What we have been focusing on is ensuring that our stakeholders are on the same page and the initiative the campaign that we are going to launch this morning you know is to continue building on what we have done over the last few months. It is going to take us up to the tourist season in November. Um um I'll pause there because I don't want to announce that just yet. But let me use this opportunity to thank every member of staff and the board as well for their contribution.

[00:18:58]None of these initiative that I just mentioned would not have been possible without the hardworking team that we have in the ministry. So if you could just applaud and for the continue have work and just to be clear the the the vision that I have and a shared vision by the ministry the board for our tourism is simply to position St. Vincent and the Gren as a premium sustainable and authentic Caribbean destination.

[00:19:31]We don't want to uh we are not going to elevate our standard at all costs.

[00:19:36]Right? We have to ensure that we are strategic and that whatever we achieve is sustainable growth. And so that is why we are working extremely closely on everything we do with the sustainable development unit. Um we are working with the national Olympics committee for their guidance as well. And wherever possible, whenever possible with partners coming to us, we are open and willing to work with them to just ensure that we achieve sustainable growth.

[00:20:03]Ultimately, what we want is to develop our industry so that one we create sustainable jobs which is critical because we want every single Vincent to feel the impact of tourism and that is why we emphasize on community tourism.

[00:20:21]So we want to create sustainable jobs and also have entrepreneurial opportunities available for Vincent.

[00:20:28]Also critical is to encourage investment in our country. So we want investors to be coming from all over the globe.

[00:20:38]Obviously we're going to vet them and we're going to be selective as well. But it is important that we attract investment in our country. And I'll just say that we have a few very exciting projects coming up in the next 6 months.

[00:20:53]Very excited. All right. But I won't give those details just yet.

[00:20:58]Also, we have to strengthen our airlift and connectivity with the rest of the world. That is absolutely critical. We have a very good record track record with civil aviation. We want that to continue. But we want to also expand.

[00:21:12]And it is it's a chicken and egg situation in that the airlines are saying well do you have accommodation and the investors are saying well do you have airlines? So we are working together with hotelers um the airlines to ensure that we could move seamlessly you know and over the next two years or so hopefully we could add at least another say to 2,000 room stock that would be a tremendous achievement. I think it is practical and we are working towards that and we need to invest certainly or enhance the quality and standard of our tourism product.

[00:21:55]Improving visitors experience is absolutely critical. That is how we going to sustain and grow our tourism industry here in St. Vincent Green. From the time a tourist lands in the country at the airport, we want the experience to be pleasant. We want going through immigration. We want visitors to be met with a smile by by our immigration officers. We want when the time they reach to or when they leave the immigration line, they don't have to wait 15 minutes for for their luggage.

[00:22:29]Right. And we want them going through security. Yes. We want them vetted and we want them search where necessary because we don't want to allow bad negative elements in our country. But it's important that we ensure that that process is seamless as possible and we are working on a solution to ensure that happens and the whole experience in the country. We must ensure that there's greater efficiency throughout the entire country.

[00:23:00]hospitality, safety and then the authenticity must remain as well. I think even when we had the ignite program with the kids, we emphasize about the importance of cleanliness and talk to the kids about not littering.

[00:23:18]All right? And we hoping that these young kids could go and tell their parents, their friends and families about not littering because all these very important and sometime we slight these things. But if you're going to elevate our overall standard and these are the thing nothing is too small for us to to change adjust and improve right and that must be our mindset going forward. So we're going to have training as well for our taxi drivers, our hotelers. You know, sometimes you go to some of the restaurants and the service is, you know, subpar, you know, but it is not because they're not interested.

[00:23:54]It's sometimes ignorance. And so we have to ensure that we train them and provide all the necessary tools for them to improve.

[00:24:03]We we also have to commit to expanding opportunities for local participation.

[00:24:09]That's why I say I want all the investors locally and abroad to be part of this. Um we also have to encourage and incentivize or continue to incentivize our operators, our business men and women here as well. And we have a very good support concessions and we receive you know several applications weekly for improving whether it's apartments, hotels and so on. and we continue to encourage those. And so overall a very successful few months I would say and if you go through all that I've said there not to mention some of the other projects we are working on like the project the un unleashing the blue economy for the for the Caribbean um where we have access to some you know 20 million or so dollars to spend. One of the key projects that we are doing under that project is the on that um those funds with those funds are Chunka Bay Recreational Site which we are still working with the designers um to ensure that we have a unique product without losing that community spirit um in in Chunka Bay and and North Leeward.

[00:25:27]And quite frankly all this 5 months we have gone without we have we have achieved this without a CEO. All right is quite interesting that we have done and achieved so much without us. So we are not yet firing on all cylinders. That is the point. Thanks to to Mr. Sutherland the chief operating officer who has stepped up in a leadership capacity.

[00:25:58]and he obviously has the support of his board and we also have the permanent secretary very experienced and efficient and supporting the SVG tourism authority. So it's really total teamwork right across the ministry and we are grateful to all these stakeholders who have been working with us cooperating with us sharing their ideas and providing feedback so that we could all elevate. I am really optimistic about the future of St. Vincent Grenines in the tourism space. There's tremendous opportunities for us. I think that we should take our rightful place as leaders in the Caribbean for the tourism sector. And with that, I'm going to pause. I want to thank you again for being here this morning. I'll come back later on to share this exciting initiative with you. But thanks for the time being. Thank you, Jamal.

[00:26:53]Thank you very much, Minister. As you said, it's not exactly just under a six-month update. It's actually 168 days or for those of you who are counting 5 months and 16 days, but minister did such a good job that he's going to come back for encore performance in a little bit of time. But at this time I want to introduce to the lectern to you the CEO the COO sorry of the St. Vincent the Grand Tourism Authority. I was listening very closely to the minister so the acronyms mixed up in my head. Okay. The COO of the SVG Tourism Authority Mr. Sean Sland.

[00:27:35]Welcome to a pleasant good morning everyone. Um protocol are already being established.

[00:27:49]I still want to say um greetings to Minister Shalow, PS Brown, directors, board of directors, um directors of our the various organizations under the Ministry of Tourism, Sustainable Development, Civil Aviation, media personnel, and persons viewing the press briefing online. Pleasant good morning to you once again. Uh in my capacity as chief operating officer, I'm here to deliver brief remarks on behalf of the board of directors of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority. Basically speaking to what the vision is of the board of directors and the team of the tourism authority going forward. So without further ado, I will start and some of what I say will be to further strengthen what the minister has suggested before. I may have to leave out some of it because he has stolen some of our bluster with his, you know, knowledgeable delivery, but um we will proceed.

[00:29:01]So tourism continues to play a critical role in the economic development of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

[00:29:08]Despite the evolving global tourism landscape, we are encouraged by the steady signs of growth, renewed investor confidence, and increasing international interest in our destination.

[00:29:21]Over the past several months or how many ever days the MC suggested, the authority has continued to work closely with the industry stakeholders, regional partners, airlines, investors and community to strengthen the tourism product and enhance the overall visitor experience throughout the country.

[00:29:44]One of our primary areas of focus remains airlift to the destination and accessibility. We continue to build on the opportunities created through improved air access and strategic partners partnerships with regional and international carriers.

[00:30:00]Enhanced connectivity remains essential to tourism.

[00:30:05]Investment business travel and visitor arrivals. Now I will take a little bit of a pause there to suggest what the arrival figures were like. The most significant figure that we had to report on last year was we had over 120,000 stayover arrivals which was a record for St. Vincent and the Grengades. Already for the first quarter we are seeing a 10% 10 11 12% but 10% increase for each month for the first quarter January, February and March in terms of our stayovers. So we are seeing an upward trajectory and we anticipate that will be very consistent over the course of the year.

[00:30:52]Discussions therefore remain ongoing to strengthen routes in increase fright frequency and improve overall access to the destination.

[00:31:02]At the same time we're witnessing growing confidence from the private sector through continued tourism investments across the country. These developments expected to increase room capacity as the minister suggested, support occupancy growth, create employment, and expand economic activity throughout mainland St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

[00:31:27]All things that have been previously suggested by the minister in his opening remarks.

[00:31:32]As an authority, we are also placing greater emphasis on destination visibility and strategic tourism partnerships.

[00:31:41]The partnerships as mentioned before, Spirit of the St. Vincent and the Grenardines from track to tropics, I love SVG, go Grenardines, and One Fest Caribbean. I'm going to expand on these a little bit later.

[00:31:56]We're also leveraging global digital exposure opportunities including the recent international attention generated um through the streaming platforms like I show speed, below deck and the David Hoffman YouTube channel which he has suggested St. Vincent and the Grenardines is the most underrated food destination in the Caribbean. And as a person who has dual citizenship, we know that could be a problem now these days.

[00:32:23]I can say um he is absolutely right. St. Vincent and the Grandes is the most underrated and diverse food destination in the Caribbean. I endorse that statement.

[00:32:36]The visibility generated through ISO speeds Caribbean content demonstrated the growing influence of digital creators and online streaming platforms in shaping travel interests among younger global audiences.

[00:32:50]And um I think this is something that St. Vincent Grenades wasn't necessarily known for before. We more or less targeted our our influence to persons who are a little bit more seasoned and a little bit more senior and wanted leisure travel, a slower pace. But we are now going to be seen as a destination that can be visited by all young, old, rich, not so rich.

[00:33:22]The authority intends to capitalize on these opportunities by strengthening digital storytelling, influencer engagement, and modern destination marketing strategies that positioned St. Vincent and the Grenardines within the evolving global tra travel trends. These initiatives form part of a broader effort to modernize destination marketing, strengthen international visibility, and create more engaging tourism experiences across multiple visitor segments.

[00:33:53]The spirit of S Vincent and Grenadine's initiative in partnership with Intercaribbean Airlines seeks to strengthen SPG's visibility through aviation partnerships, regional collaboration, and destination branding opportunities that will position St. Vincent and the Grenadines more prominently within regional markets. Tractor Tropics in collaboration with NASCAR well Vincent NASCAR driver Rajikarut and Tempo networks will allow us to connect sport wellness lifestyle experiences and tourism promotion in a way that appeals to younger and experienced travelers.

[00:34:31]Isle of SVG will focus on national pride, encouraging Vincent to actively participate in shaping the visitor experience through hospitality, cleanliness, customer service, and positive engagement.

[00:34:47]Go Grenardines will strengthen the profile of the Grenardine Islands by showcasing the unique experiences available throughout the Grenardines while creating opportunities for local tourism operators, entrepreneurs and communities.

[00:35:03]Additionally, partnerships surrounding events as OneFest Caribbean, OneFest Canoan, sorry, demonstrate the growing value of integrating local entertainment, culture, lifestyle, and community participation into the national tourism product.

[00:35:21]The authority is also transitioning towards a more modern performancedriven operational structure focus on stronger accountability, data intelligence, digital systems, strategic marketing and measurable outcomes.

[00:35:38]A majority of moving a major priority moving forward will be strengthening SVG's destination brand identity and international positioning through target marketing campaigns, strategic public relations, influencer partnerships, diaspora engagement, and expanded travel trade relationships across key source markets.

[00:36:02]The authority remains committed to improving visitor experience through the destination. This includes a focus on customer service and hospitality standards, tourism product development, community tourism, yacht, yaching and marine tourism, destination cleanliness as stated by the minister as being a priority, cultural and heritage experiences and strengthening the overall quality and consistency of the tourism project product nationwide.

[00:36:35]At the same time, we recognize that there are challenges that must continue to be addressed.

[00:36:40]Issues such as regional connectivity, climate resilience, infrastructure development, workforce readiness, sustainability, and maintaining the balance between tourism growth and environmental preservation.

[00:36:56]These all remain important priorities for the authority and the wider industry.

[00:37:02]In response, we continue to pursue corrective actions focused on improving tourism standards, strengthening the workforce, training and development, enhancing destination readiness, expanding digital marketing, destination intelligence, and modernizing and building stronger collaboration between public and the private sector.

[00:37:26]Our vision remains clear.

[00:37:28]We are committed to building a tourism industry that's sustainable, competitive, modern, and inclusive. One that creates meaningful opportunities for Vincensions while preserving authenticity, culture, natural beauty that makes S Vincent and the Grenardines unique.

[00:37:48]The future of tourism in St. and the Grenelines remains extremely promising and we are confident that the partnership being developed and the investments now be taking place and the strategic direction being pursued will continue to position our destination strongly within the global tourism market. I thank you.

[00:38:17]Thank you very much Mr. Sland for those updates on our ongoing partnerships, industry performance and trends, airlift occupancy, visitor experience updates and being helping us being mindful of the challenges that lay ahead. But all of these magical things that we do in tourism happens within a policy framework and it is largely dependent on our inter agency collaboration. So to tell us more about that I would like to invite to the microphone at this time the permanent secretary in the ministry of tourism civation.

[00:38:58]>> Oh we have we have >> okay oh sorry that's true. Okay. So at this time for as I mentioned before the his encore presentation I'm going to invite again Dr. Honorable Dr. Kishaw Shallow to the microphone.

[00:39:22]Yes.

[00:39:37]So I hope based on what you've heard so far that everyone and when I say everyone not just those who are in the room here with us today at Liew the beautiful Liew but those who are in the online audience that we're very excited in terms of what lays ahead in terms of the possibilities for St. Vincent and the Grenadines and tourism particularly in a very sustainable way.

[00:40:14]Okay.

[00:40:16]So, just a little change in our program.

[00:40:20]We are going to invite at this time to the podium the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development, Dr. Tamira Brown.

[00:40:33]Thank you so much Jamali and thank you for your indulgence everyone. Good morning. I am sorry if I do not sound like my usual self. I am in recovery mode but I want to extend warm greetings to honorable minister of tourism s civil aviation and sustainable development honorable Dr. Keshaw Shallow members of the board of St. Vincent the Grenadines Tourism Authority senior members of staff director Andrea Best we also have from the sustainable development unit environmental resource research analyst too Mr. Kurt Dugen as well as senior members from the department of tourism as well. We have Miss Raquel Hamlet and other staff members, media representatives.

[00:41:30]Good morning.

[00:41:33]Today is not just about the launch of the love SVG or love St. Vincent and the Grenardines campaign. Today is the beginning of a national movement. A movement that calls on every one of us not just as public servants, our stakeholders, but as vincensions to take ownership of our country, our communities and our future.

[00:42:03]The love SVG initiative is grounded in a simple but powerful idea.

[00:42:11]that the way we care for our country defines how the world experiences it.

[00:42:20]And so today I wish to speak to you about how we move from vision to action through policy alignment, structured implementation and strong unified execution.

[00:42:37]First let's look at policy alignment. a whole of government and a whole of society commitment.

[00:42:47]The love SVG campaign is not an isolated initiative. It is deeply aligned with our national development priorities.

[00:42:58]Time and again you would hear about tourism growth, environmental sustainability, community empowerment, and national pride. It recognizes that tourism is not confined to hotels or attractions.

[00:43:16]Tourism is our paths and trails. It is our rivers and beaches. It is our towns and villages. It is our actions, our environmentally friendly practices.

[00:43:30]But most importantly, it is about our people.

[00:43:35]This campaign therefore demands a whole of government and a whole of society approach.

[00:43:43]Every ministry, every agency, every community, every Vincension, all working together under one unified vision to position St. Vincent and the Grenardines as the island of love not only in name but also importantly in experience.

[00:44:08]Secondly, let's talk about the implementation from vision to visible results.

[00:44:17]The strength of this initiatives initiative lies in its clarity and ambition.

[00:44:26]The honorable minister, and you may not have heard him yet, but in his presentation, he has set a bold national target to complete 100 priority projects across St. Vincent and the Grenardines.

[00:44:45]These are not abstract commitments. They are real, tangible, visible improvements that people will see, experience and benefit from. These are projects that will be created by you and me.

[00:45:05]Tomorrow the ministry will share with all line ministries and state agencies a simple form where ministries and agencies can submit a project or projects of interest and explain how the project will be beneficial.

[00:45:27]Projects can be micro projects such as the installation of an all islands recycling bin for example or macro projects such as engineering projects to beautify spaces. Importantly, this form will also be extended to private sector private sector entities and community organizations through our media agencies.

[00:45:58]We anticipate that your projects and all will lead to cleaner and greener spaces and enhance our beaches and rivers. We envision projects that will improve access to our attractions. We look forward to projects that will uplift our communities and strengthen our tourism product directly or indirectly.

[00:46:26]Each line ministry and statutory body will be challenged to complete at least five projects focused on sustainable recycling, reducing litter and improving cleanliness, beautifying our spaces, and preparing our nation for the 2026 tourist season.

[00:46:49]The private sector will be challenged in this way as well. or they may wish to adopt a site as we build out more enriching experiences in St. Vincent and the Grenardines.

[00:47:04]Yes, we are using the off season May to October not as a period of pause but as a period of purposeful action.

[00:47:19]By the time next tourist season begins in November, St. Vincent and the Grenardines must be ready, confident, competitive and comp compelling.

[00:47:33]Thirdly, coordination and execution for delivering together through your ministry, organization, or grouping.

[00:47:45]simply embark on a mission to complete a project or several projects that help to improve any of these five categories.

[00:47:58]One, natural attractions and ecoites.

[00:48:02]Two, heritage and cultural sites. Three, transport and access infrastructure.

[00:48:10]Four, hospitality service upgrades. and five, community or community tourism initiatives.

[00:48:19]You can think about commissioning mural paintings with local artists that tell our story. cleanup campaigns that focus not only on trash disposal but also on recycling trash, installation of no litter signs, installation of recycle bins or any other areas that fit within the categories presented.

[00:48:46]Once you have expressed your interest in May, by September 30th, we will issue a call to capture the number of completed projects and the number of beneficiaries.

[00:49:01]This helps us to ensure that this is not simply about expressing interest, it is about creating impact. It is not simply about designing projects but importantly about project delivery.

[00:49:18]So our national call to action.

[00:49:22]The success of love SVG will not be determined by policies or projects. It will be determined by the choices we make every day. Do we keep our surroundings clean?

[00:49:41]Do we take pride in our communities?

[00:49:45]Do we treat each other and visitors with warmth and respect?

[00:49:52]Do we truly love SVG?

[00:49:56]Not just in words, but in action.

[00:50:01]This campaign is a call to every Vincension to reflect on these things and to take positive action as we represent our country with pride because tourism is not something that happens to us. It is something that we create together.

[00:50:25]If we get this right and minister, I believe that we will, the results will be transformational.

[00:50:32]We will see cleaner communities, stronger tourism experiences, greater visitor satisfaction, increased economic opportunity.

[00:50:46]But more than that, we will see a country that reflects our identity. A land so beautiful that with joyful hearts we pledge to thee our loyalty and love. A land whose mountains are high, clear, and green with the gems of the lovely Grenardines.

[00:51:13]Ladies and gentlemen, love SVG is more than a campaign. And I believe that it is now clear. The vision is shared. The challenge has been issued. Now let us build the partnerships, take responsibility and get the work done because we love SVG. The responsibilility rest with all of us.

[00:51:42]So that when the world arrives on our shores for Vincy Mass, for CPL and the start of the cruise season in November 2026, they do not simply see a beautiful destination.

[00:52:00]They feel the pride, the care, and the love that define St. Vincent and the Grenardines. Let's rise to this moment.

[00:52:10]Let us lead by example and let us show each other and the world that we truly love SVG. Thank you.

[00:52:25]Thank you very much, Dr. Brown. Now, to use a film analogy, Dr. Brown just gave us what you would consider to be a little trailer for the featurelength film that is about to happen. So what we're going to do right now is we're going to take a short 3 minute break, recoup ourselves, and then we would return to the presentation.

[00:56:37]SVG. G campaign launch and again without further ado we are going to invite to the podium to the lectern at this time the honorable Dr. Kishar Shallow Minister of Tourism Civil Aviation and Sustainable Development.

[00:56:54]Thanks again Jamali and I appreciate the flexibility there PS um for switching on the agenda. So what we have and I can't see the screen so but this initiative is called love s Vincent and the grenardines. We mention it in the media so far. You also heard from Sean and the permanent secretary. And I just going to give some context before I go through what this initiative is.

[00:57:25]And so sometime I think a few weeks ago we went to Florida for the seat trade global cruise um c global cruise trade right for the seat trade global cruise initiative which is a massive it's where all the key players in the industry the cruise industry come together to promote their destination and their port And we got feedback from a few of the cruise lines, Carnival, Norwegian, and the others who come to the Caribbean. And what we heard was fairly consistent that St. Vincent and the Grenardines is naturally a beautiful destination. We all know that.

[00:58:16]However, compared to the other countries, what they have said is that even with the natural beauty, there are certain products that must be available to keep their passengers, their guests coming back over and over and want to explore. And so with my own observations from feedback from staff and other stakeholders here in St. events on the Grand Deans. We realize and accept the fact that we must improve and elevate the whole product, the Vincy product, the the local experience to attract more guests frequently.

[00:58:57]And so, and if we the stats are there to show so our our cruise stats suggest that we have an average about 350,000 passengers per year.

[00:59:10]and the stay over the arrival stay over this year 120,000 and we might say well that's we are improving it's not bad but relative to other countries if we look at right across Grenada Grenada stay over 180 something thousand and if we look even closer than Grenada St. usure is 426,000 per year. Right.

[00:59:39]Antigga sink kits for cruise they receive over a million passengers per year. So it means that there are opportunities for improvement. We could do a lot better. And how do we do that?

[00:59:53]it must be a strategic and deliberate you know um approach from us to ensure we get there and so we came up with this love St. convention on the Grenadines initiative that would include every Vincension playing a part to elevate the standard of our tourism product. And so the overview is such as you see on the screen to improve really enhance our product is a six months initiative which would go and be strategically planning for the off season. So it ends just before the start of the new tourist season in November.

[01:00:38]So what it really the objective the ultimate objective is to is to upgrade and enhance the facilities the service or the services across the country and this is mainland Grenardines to ensure that together again we leverage every sort of everyone every stakeholder must play a part in this and ultimately on the PS mention it what we are going to is identify 100 priority projects. 100 projects. It sounds like a lot, but we are going to and we have over 100 products so far. Projects so far identified that we are going to target to improve between now and November 1st 100. And these vary they vary in scope.

[01:01:36]So we started and saying that you know our guests sometimes go to some sites and they complain about where do I put my litter, where do I put my garbage.

[01:01:46]We're going to ensure that sites have the garbage bins. We're going to ensure that sites have adequate personnel to man the the different facilities. We're going to train our people who engage directly with guests. And we are going to go up to bigger projects like completing Fort Charlotte, upgrading Dark View Falls, enhancing pavement. I haven't been there yet, but I understand pavement is a wonderful waterfalls on the Windwood side out um huh out out of I'm sure Bradley could tell me. Bradley probably been there a few times, right?

[01:02:27]But all these projects and we are going to I think we have bought in 120 projects that we have. We are going to zoom into 100 because we want this to be viable and this is going to be in the Grenardines as much as it is is going to be on the mainland. So you see the different categories on screen.

[01:02:46]The natural attractions and on and sites, the heritage and cultural sites, transport and access infrastructure, hospitality service upgrade. That is something that we understand is uh there's a bit of deficiency there in terms of there's not the consistency with our two operators and how they engage our our guests and community tourism. Right. Community based tourism.

[01:03:13]So the timeline is on screen. So we have this month as I said we have over 120 projects currently but we want to compress it to 100. Not 99 not 101 100.

[01:03:27]And so over the course of this month into June we are going to finalize those with the resources that are necessary to realize these projects. So we are working closely with the different agencies um the ministries and so on with the appropriate we working with the communities to ensure we have the buying so we sensitize them and then come after June in the second phase of the project is where we are going to lead with the execution the upgrades we're going to have a lot of work and as you would imagine and this is the beautiful thing about this initiative that during that period we're going going to create employment as Because with all these projects being done simultaneously, we're going to need people to walk, enhance these facilities. You know, millions of dollars going to be spent as well on these initiatives. And in October, we finalize and we conclude and we get ready for the new tourist season. And so, as I said, this this requires all of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

[01:04:34]Every one of us has to be on board.

[01:04:37]We're working closely with the ministries, the hotelers.

[01:04:43]So the private sector, they have their key role to play and some of them have already feed into this in terms of suggestions where we could improve and offer to help as well even with training internship and all these things to get our people involved. So we have our stakeholders on board. We have a few more meetings to um that we are going to host in the coming weeks. All this will be done by mid June. And how we going to go about it? We're going to establish a task force, a steering committee which would lead this project.

[01:05:15]So we have management. So apart from the ministry, tourism authority and all our other departments, we are going to establish a steering committee which will be charged with implementing this initiative with technical team, proper reporting to ensure that we manage this because it's it's a tight timeline but we believe that we could deliver this for our country and to enhance our product. So the expected outcomes improved tourism infrastructure certainly higher visitor satisfaction.

[01:05:55]We want every time a visitor comes here from November that it is a positive story.

[01:06:03]We want them to say that the is the best driver they have used in the entire world going around based on feedback. We want the engagement at the restaurant.

[01:06:14]When they go to the restaurant, they must say as soon as we got there, you know, we we were offered water. Simple things that we take for granted, right?

[01:06:24]The feedback and so on. Even adding things like the I spoke about that is the support, but at the airport, we want the whole process there to be as seamless as possible. So we are looking at implementing a solution as one of the projects that when a guest arrives they go straight through the airport without much hassle and that would take them a few minutes. So that is the love SVG initiative and we are inviting every single vincension all our stakeholders to come on board with this.

[01:06:58]There are some other huge announcements that going to made that are going to be made over the coming weeks that would complement this. I just want to hold them back. I might need the prime minister to make some of these announcement because they're national.

[01:07:10]They have national impact. But this is certainly very exciting time for St. Vincent and the Grenardines. We have a wonderful product here.

[01:07:21]the world I think been searching for a place like Invent and the Grand as a destination and so we want to welcome them and each of you in this room those watching online private community we need to work together on this to realize this and once we are able to be successful come end of October I'm sure that every Vincent will be in a much better position to benefit from a stimulated economy through tourism.

[01:07:52]Thank you again.

[01:07:57]>> Thank you very much, Minister Dr. Kishaw Shalo to introduce to us the love SVG campaign which is a six-month initiative of 100 programs but I know that even though it was a more or less comprehensive press conference that some of the members of the media here would have some questions so we would move right into our Q&A segment of today's session. So we invite the members of the media now to present their questions and you have here at the head table the permanent secretary the minister and the COO of the tourism authority to who would be able to answer your questions there's a microphone available SVGTV I for the love SVG minister um so you have already identified these 00 projects is it? Could you say what's the cost?

[01:09:03]>> Oh, I can move. Okay.

[01:09:10]>> Feel free to ask the PS and the CO questions as well. So they could exchange them.

[01:09:15]So the first phase of the project is to get all the different agencies together where we'll finalize the costs. So some of these projects they have costs and this is why we're going to find finalize from the 120 plus to the 120 with what is those the 100 those that are affordable right in this six month window. Um fortunately for us there was some um capital um budget for for different development under the tourism sector um under national parks and under um the tourism authority and under um the the ministry as well. So we're going to tap into all these different budget capital budget to finance these projects. But we're going to be again I've said to the PS and the board the chair of the board um Miss Shelanne Fraser who unfortunately had to travel today that is why she's not here but we have agreed to give in to come in before you the media in one month's time to ensure that we provide you with an update and by that time we are going to provide you with the 100 projects. I can't guarantee you that we're going to give you the cause of every single project, but we are going to be as transparent as possible with the public.

[01:10:37]And that is why we decided to have this this um press conference today and which is why we are committed to having monthly press conferences throughout this project.

[01:10:50]>> Okay. Earlier also, this is not in love SVG. You mentioned that there is um you're operating without a chief executive officer. Are there any plans to have one?

[01:11:01]>> Of course. Um I'm I'm I wish the announcement um could have been made now, but we already confirm uh the CEO. Um the position should be filled from the 4th of July. So that is when so by the next press conference, we are going to make that announcement. I'm sure you'll be quite excited to learn who that individual is.

[01:11:26]>> Thank you. Any other questions from the media?

[01:11:43]Okay, which allows this to come in actually under our 75 minute time limit.

[01:11:49]But I want to just at this time thank everyone who has attended today. And we as the minister just mentioned there will be more updates going forward and we want to really thank all of those again who are in our online audience and especially those who are here today at love you. So with at this time we would like to just sign out and thank you particularly to a agency of public information for carrying this press conference live and thank you very much.

[01:12:37]Just want to as we close encourage us to think about love SVG and in our reflections consider how our workplaces, our institutions can become involved in this initiative because it doesn't really have to be limited to 100. We have 100 priority project projects for the upcoming season. But beyond those 100, what are the other projects that we can create in our personal spaces and in our other communities? All the very best and have a wonderful day.