 St Lucia is gearing up for an exciting summer, signaled by the Witsentide weekend, an unofficial start to the summer for St Lucia, with British Korea UTI's return to the destination. The weekend also brought more optimism, that St Lucia's tourism sector will continue along a steady trajectory, with the official reopening of several accommodation providers including Body Holiday St Lucia, Eastwinds and Royal Turn Resorts, and the welcoming of some 2,300 visitors to the destination. Increased airlift during this summer from St Lucia's main source markets has increased occupancy levels for several accommodation providers, which is vital for the continued revival of the tourism sector. St Rayne Jordan's is the St Lucia Tourism Authority's public relations manager. Several accommodation providers are reporting increased levels of occupancy during the summer, and internationally they're adding gateways to St Lucia that will open up as of the 5th of June. And so we will see the introduction of an inaugural service from Dallas and the return of American Airlines service from New York after more than a decade. Also on July 1st, we will welcome JetBlue from New Jersey, and so these are all part of the excitement that we're building up for this summer, and thereafter we expect international markets including Canada to open up in the weeks ahead. Minister for Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries, Honourable Dominic Fady stated that he is happy that the tourism sector is on a rebound which can only augur well for more jobs, business linkages and more revenue. He expressed optimism about the start of what is projecting to be an exciting summer, which means that hundreds more of tourism employees will likely return to work, noting that several taxi drivers, tour guides, vendors and others have been disadvantaged amid the pandemic. The SLTA has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring the successful rebound of the tourism sector and the return of the industry workers to gainful employment. We are very happy to see that tourism is pretty much on the rebound and this augurs well for more jobs, our business linkages and more revenue. We are also optimistic that the summer is projecting to be very exciting and that means a lot more of the tourism employees can return to work. We note that several have been disadvantaged amid the pandemic and together we want to ensure that we can restore St Lucia's tourism product and so the SLTA continues with its marketing efforts in terms of ensuring that St Lucia is highlighted and really done so strategically within its source markets and we just hosted our Global Virtual Roadshow and right now we're focusing on the Virtual North American Roadshow really engaging with our targeted audience. We also just participated in a recent CHD Caribbean Travel Marketplace 39 and we're looking forward to reaping the benefits for the destination from these engagements. The St Lucia Tourism Authority continues to place special focus on key areas within major source markets of the USA, UK, Canada, the Caribbean and Asia in reaping fruitful benefits for the destination. From the Government Information Service, Hlmedi Makh reporting.