 The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers came to an official end at the Rodney Bay IHY Marina on Saturday 13th January, which coincided with the start of the World ARC. Around the world adventure, taking place over 15 months and covering 26,000 nautical miles. St. Lucia Government officials, participants of the ARC 2023 and representatives of the World Cruising Club will on hand to mark the occasion. Minister with responsibility for tourism, Honourable Dr. Ernest Hiller, was pleased with the overall success of the event and added activities that saw participation from cruisers and locals alike. The numbers were quite impressive and I think in many ways it showed that the event continued to grow and especially as I said post-COVID and the participants that I spoke with all seem to have been very satisfied with the level of organisation. You mentioned a couple of events that were added and we were really impressed with the Exports and Lucia event, the solution market that was put on and of course the ARC in Anselary was also quite a pleasing addition that was brought in and I think it says a lot about how the event can continue to grow but even more importantly the impact that it has on the country in terms of economic activity, in terms of spend of course as the numbers grow you have more persons who are you know visiting restaurants, going on tours, you know visiting Anselary in this particular case, the San Lucia marketplace was you know a success so we're certainly looking forward to the event growing even further. The Rodney Bay IGY marina has been the destination for the ARC for several years. General Manager Sean Devaux has been pleased with the overall growth of the event. Well for us here at IGY as I've said all the time I mean it's an absolute special time of year for us with the World ARC it's even a bit more special because it's the only event that World Cruising Club puts on from San Lucia that will end in the same destination and for Rodney Bay IGY marina to be part of that it's even more tremendous and emotional I guess to some extent connected to it. Fortunately for us the I think for the cruisers and everything else it's an ideal location because IGY has the marina we also have the boat yard and a lot of the technical support and so as a result of that we are able to support them. A lot of these boats who are going around the world as you heard from the Minister and Paul 15 months on the water so you can only imagine the amount of preparation that goes into planning this you know making sure the lines are right the sails are right the engines in its tip-top shape and so from a technical aspect we rarely play up a vital point in coordinating all of those repairs through the World Cruising Club through our technical team both in-house and out-of-house and so we're just very proud for a day like today to see everybody get to the starting line. Obviously for us we've seen through the engagements and the different activities with events company and Ministry of Tourism World Cruising Club and all your sponsors and support that we get we've seen the growth when the clients or the cruisers first meet and then we see them turn into friends and then I can guarantee you when you come back here in April to welcome the group that left last year some of them are lifelong friends that keep in touch forever. 25 yachts will sail around the world for one year and end at Rodney Bay in April of 2025. Meanwhile the yachts which left St Lucia for World Arc in 2023 will be expected to begin arriving on Island in April of this year. The general manager of the marina underscored the tremendous impact of both events on St Lucia's economy. Every year with the Arc we put on what we call the Arc Village and so it would be the little shuttle houses that you see along the boardwalk here in the marina and that is really to to tailor and to cater to those entrepreneurs who wish to come and display their products their services and whatever else they have to offer. So we've been doing it for years and obviously with the support of exports and we're sure we look to expand on that but yeah coming back to the economic impact I mean you know 11 million dollars is spent in the country in three weeks less than five percent of that is actually spent within the marina. I know the perception is everything is spent within the marina but that just goes to show that the economic impact of the world of the Arc is really spent in every corner of this island and so we encourage new ideas new products and everything else because we really want to show them an authentic St Lucia and especially with the World Cruising Club and the event today which is World Arc they're going to leave from St Lucia which means hopefully in their hearts they have a piece of St Lucia and they're going to go around the world and hopefully remember us in every so from a marketing and an advertising standpoint it's a phenomenal feature for St Lucia. 155 yachts started arriving in St Lucia in December 2023 for the 38th edition of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. The race was launched from Les Palmes, Spain on 19th November 2023. From the Government Information Service I am Virgil Leonti reporting.