 Hello and welcome to a broadcast update from the government of St. Lucia. This is a production of the Government Information Service and the National Television Network. Today, Tuesday, the 13th of July 2021, we welcome the arrival of two cruise vessels here in St. Lucia and a port castry, point servant to be exact. We have a birthing in our port, the Celebrity Summit and we have approximately 410 passengers that we hope will disembark to experience St. Lucia. For the next 30 minutes or so, we're going to be letting you in on some of the sights and sounds of what is the second such event here on Ireland since the pandemic. The tourism industry is definitely recuperating. We're seeing about 91% upwards in terms of our US market, a 4% increase in terms of the growth coming off of the lockdown in the UK. So there's definitely a lot that is happening in terms of our tourism sector. Just want to let you know first of all, my name is Jessie Leance. If you're just joining the live, good morning, good morning to you. We are live at port castries for the arrival, celebrating the arrival of the Celebrity Summit. I just want to now welcome the minister with responsibility for tourism, minister for Tourism Honourable Dominic Fede to just give us a few words on this auspicious occasion, particularly as we're coming off of this very, this very troublesome situation of a pandemic. Good morning to you, sir. Well, the pandemic has certainly left the tourism industry with the bottom falling out. And really, I think it's good. It's the devastation that we are recovering from is absolutely encouraging. So many people are back at work, 10,000 employees at the hotel sector, several hundreds in other sub sectors like car rental and cruises and attractions are also back at work. And I think it's really why we're doing this. It's really why our government decided that we were going to have a policy where we were, yes, going to perfect the management of COVID, but at the same time, we had to strike a balance of making sure that individuals who had lost their jobs and who had lost their ability to get an income for their families and take care of themselves, that these individuals were going to come back to work as soon as possible. And I think it is working to see that at least two thirds of the employees within the sector are back at work. So this is really, really good. The banks have tried, as you know, Jesse, but we focus a lot on the health aspect of COVID and what it has done and how many cases we've had. But, you know, someone really needs to go deeper into the numbers to look at how many jobs we've lost and how much have we lost in salaries and how many loans have piled up. I know a lot of people, Jesse, who are very frustrated by the situation. The financial stress has caused emotional pain and we have to do everything within our grasp to make sure that we bring back our economy and bring it back strong and rebuild our economy and put the country back to work. So today really represents that broader goal and that broader philosophy. Absolutely. And coming off of the gloom of the pandemic, I know that many St. Lucians, particularly the stakeholders, as you mentioned, are looking forward, anticipating, you know, a resumption of the cruise sector as we're seeing now. We know that the schedule is still tentative, but speak to the very precious place that St. Lucian has found itself in, particularly today, having two cruise vessels in port. Very critical. There's just one in port castries and then the other vessel is at Pigeon Island. And again, I think there is a combination of about 600 that have come in. So you're going to have a lot of sights and attractions that are busy. When I walked through Point Turf in earlier in the week, the place was a ghost town and it meant that if there are no customers, it meant that all these shops were closed and if the shops are closed, it means that the employees have no work and if there's no work, there's no income. So really, I bring this back to them. Look at all the port employees that are here. Last time we were here for the inaugural call, we had some hundreds of workers, tour guides who had said to us that they had not worked since the pandemic began. And those are, I mean, just think about it. We're talking about March 2020, a year and three months. You have not worked in 15 months. That really is very, very difficult. And a lot of people are behind in their rent. They're behind in their car payments. They're behind in mortgage payments because of this global pandemic that we've had and because really of the importance of tourism to our economy. So what we have to do is to continue to make sure that we drive home the message that we need to keep pressing forward with the reopening of our tourism sector and the reopening of our entire economy. Absolutely. We're speaking the recuperation of the cruise sector, but also in terms of a airlift to St. Lucia, speak to us about the tourism sector's recuperation in that respect. We've seen St. Lucia benefiting from being first in line because of the preparation that was made very early on in the pandemic. So speak to us on where we're at right now. Well, I think from the months of May to July, we're going to have a surplus of 15 percent in terms of the number of air seats that's coming to St. Lucia when we compared to 2019. Now, 2019 was our best year on record in terms of arrivals. We had 423,000 and really for you to have three months that have surpassed that period in terms of arrivals and numbers. It's absolutely phenomenal. And the recovery is happening so quickly. There's such pent up demand that the hotels are seeing record breaking bookings. A lot of them are doing very well and there's just a lot of confidence in the marketplace, projections for the winter or through the roof in terms of the bookings. We had a situation a few weeks ago where one of the American Airlines flights were canceled, but we had no place to put the guests because all of the hotels that are open were full. And that really is something else when you see that our hotels have such very strong occupancy. It can only bode well for again, the workers bode well for the economy and really for us to get back into our lives. I just want to ask one more question about the cruise sector. We heard from the Defenders Association that they were a bit concerned that the people might not be there, might not be traffic to the vendors arcade and so on. Any special interventions on the part of the Ministry of Tourism to try to appeal to the passengers in that respect? Well, step by step, I think that obviously the ships are coming with reduced numbers and this gives us a chance, all of us to be able to manage the flow of people. And I'm sure that as the cruise industry, we go deeper into the season. We will have a lot more people coming on board. But these initial calls are attested. They're sending a signal to the industry, they're sending a signal to consumers and sending a signal to indeed the world to say, OK, cruise has received the battering, but we're back and we're back strong. And we have learned a lot from covid and we're better managers of this product that we call cruising. And so I believe that it's only a matter of time when the vendors are going to see some opportunity to be able to sell. But I know that vendors in other areas or the locations are already starting to benefit from the spoils. I have some vendors as well in my constituency in Ansleray who are very keen to be able to get the spoils as well. So this is very far reaching in terms of. What needs to happen? However, what I can tell you is that the plea from the vendors association is a very, very stark reminder and a very strong instruction as to the importance of tourism to the lifeblood of this economy. And that really is the message that I gather from this. And this is the point, you know, tourism accounts for so much of what we do and so much of our daily lives is related to it that we really don't see. And sometimes we overlook it. Thank you very much. I won't keep you too long. I know you have to head on up to the north for the cruise vessel. The seat star breeze, that is it. We have some one hundred and thirty five passengers up there as well. So thank you very much. And thank you for all of the work that you've been doing so far on the minister in terms of recuperating bringing back our tourism sector to what it was and also at the helm of the command center. Well, I think that is a great team of people. I see the permanent secretary over there. The prime minister himself has been doing some good work around the Caribbean. He has been selected by Caricum to lead the reopening of the industry. When the industry was shut down, you would remember all of the borders in the Caribbean was completely shut down from the outside world. And really, it's that kind of leadership that we need in such a crisis situation that we're going through now. And we're up to the task. And we continue to push forward and we're not complaining. You know, it's very, very challenging and difficult, but we have to really step up to the occasion and really take our country through this very difficult time. Thank you very much, Honorable Minister Dominic Fede, their minister with responsibility for tourism, information, broadcasting, culture and the creative industries. If you're just joining, we'd like to welcome you. This is a broadcast of the arrival of the second cruise vessel in St. Lucia. Well, I should say we have two cruise vessels in St. Lucia as at today, Tuesday, the 13th of July, 2021. We have the Celebrity Summit in Port Castries and further north in Point Seraphim, sorry, in Rodney Bay. We have the Star Breeze vessel, a combined passenger of passengers being 545. So at the Celebrity Summit, we have 410 passengers and the Star Breeze in the north that is on anchorage in the north of the island at 135. Hopefully we can see as many passengers as possible disembarking today to be able to get the full experience that St. Lucia has to offer. We just heard from the Minister for Tourism. They're speaking on, you know, this this this birthing being one of many preliminary being in the preliminary phase of the resuscitation of the cruise sector right now. And, you know, there are many persons who are very anxious, who have high anticipation for, you know, the full resumption of the cruise sector. But things are going to happen in phases. Things are going to happen slowly, steadily. And we want to encourage all of the stakeholders involved that you may not yet have been, you know, impacted significantly. But we want to encourage you to hold fast and we will see the full full resumption of the cruise tourism here in St. Lucia. And many persons will be able to experience and enjoy the cruise sector, the earnings of the cruise sector as we once did. Just want to let you know, we have these two vessels here in St. Lucia. We're just awaiting the disembarkation of the passengers at this time. And to add to that, you know, this is not just the first time that we're seeing the cruise vessels since the pandemic. We had the first vessel, another celebrity vessel, millennium coming through last month. And that signaled the start, the recommencement of cruise tourism here in St. Lucia. And the officials are very much anticipating, you know, hoping we know that the schedules are tentative when it comes to the cruise scheduling, but, you know, everyone is very hopeful that slowly and steadily we can see more and more cruise ships coming through and the fulfillment of the schedule for many of the cruise vessels coming through here on Island. We want to let you know that at this time again on Anchorage at Broadney Bay, we have the Star Breeze cruise vessel and also here in Port Castries Point Seraphim, we have the Celebrity Celebrity Summit here. Of course, definitely a time for celebration all around us. We can see there is some music and the crew of the Celebrity Summit they have as well, as usual, made the necessary accommodations for their passengers who would be disembarking today. Still very early when you think of persons who are on a cruise, but we know that the various authorities, the various tour operators and so on are making accommodation, preparing to welcome the guests, the passengers for their various tours today. Also, those who are fully vaccinated, of course, we heard that that point being, you know, specifically made of those individuals being fully vaccinated, having the opportunity to be able to go about port castries and experience port castries. And for those who are not fully vaccinated, that is individuals who have not received any COVID-19 vaccination or just receive half their dose. And as you know, in the case of the Oxford, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, it would be their first dose of the vaccine. These individuals, caution will be taken with these individuals. They will be on guided supervised tours to ensure that there is limited, if not no interaction with the general public as much as possible. So worry not, there is much care due diligence going into the delivery of the cruise passenger as being in St. Lucia and having the solution experience. Of course, St. Lucia being able to generate revenues from this resumption of the cruise sector. We're going to just now give you some of the sights and sounds of the port at this time, of course, as I indicated earlier, it's still very early when you're considered persons who are on vacation, who are on a cruise. So we are giving them time to disembark. And of course, OK, we're beginning to see some of the individuals coming off at this time, all of the measures having been put in place to accommodate these individuals. They are starting to disembark, but I dare say trickling in. So hopefully later on, we will see the deluge, hopefully, of passengers coming in. We have some live music. The operators are all on standby to welcome the passengers for the day. OK, so we do have a few passengers who have just disembarked the cruise vessel today. A special good day to you. Welcome to beautiful St. Lucia. Thank you. We're so glad to be here. Wonderful. Can you tell me your name? My name is Lee Baumann. Wonderful. Just tell me about your experience so far on the cruise vessel, the process with disembarking today. Well, it's been been pretty easy. I mean, it takes a little bit more time, but we want to be safe and careful. And we've got little small grandchildren and family traveling with us. So it's important to do what we need to do. And we're just happy to be here finally. Talk to us about the relief that being able to vacation and being able to travel again after this respite of the pandemic. Well, I tell you what, it's been a long 18 months for us. We were on the summit on the last voyage. So it was very special for us to be able to come back and cruise again on their second voyage out. And we're happy to be here in St. Lucia. So what are your plans for today? We're going on an excursion. We're taking a coastal tour on a boat and going to have a little beach time. So we're just glad you guys are open and happy to be back. Enjoy the day. All right, thank you so much. Cheers, ciao. There you heard it. A cruise passenger with her family, happy to be vacationing again, indicating that she was on the summit just before the pandemic struck. And so the opportunity now to resume that vacation, 18 months after, quite interesting, yeah? Very, very interesting. And we're happy that we're able to accommodate them for the full vacation experience. At this time, I'd like to welcome another interview. If you're just joining, good morning, good morning to you. We are coming to you live from Point Seraphine 4 on the occasion of the birthing of the Celebrity Summit in Port Castries. We have some 410, am I right? 410 passengers on board. We hope all of them during the course of the day do disembark to fully experience St. Lucia as per the guidelines of the COVID-19 protocols. We know that persons who are fully vaccinated have a bit more leeway, but definitely there are very many opportunities for those who are fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated to experience St. Lucia. And the time now for our next interview coming off of our interview with the Minister for Tourism earlier, we have a cruise tour operator. Just tell us your full name and your designation, please, sir. Ian Herman, managing director for us in his group of companies. Wonderful. Tell us what does the resumption of cruise tourism mean? Because very early on, well, in February, I should say, when we had the jump-starting of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, tour operators, all stakeholders of the cruise sector were eager and first in line to get vaccinated so we could see the resumption of what is happening today. Tell us what does today mean, the resumption of cruise tourism overall? I've always said that the business of just representing the ships coming into Lucia is really not just about the agents, it's always about everybody. And it's maybe one of the sectors that really impacts almost everyone in the country. We've seen the ship being here. Vendors are going to benefit, sea and land transportation, lots of sites and attractions around St. Lucia. So for us, it's a really exciting time to see the resumption of cruisers. Most importantly, although the ship carries about 2,100 passengers, to arrive at 400, that is sufficient for us because it's really the time for us to sort of observe and see what are the loopholes, what are the gaps, and of course, to continue to enhance the experience as they come here. Okay, wonderful. Just give us an understanding of the past 18 months, what it has been like for operators like yourself. I mean, it's really been a crunch time. It's sad to see that in our instance, some of our key staff members had to be obviously, you know, severance and get to go home. But that didn't allow us to sort of stay away from doing what we have to do to continue to align ourselves with the cruise lines and inform them that Lucia will always be ready when they're ready to come back. And of course, working with all of the stakeholders and ensuring that at the end of the day, that they were also ready. We're very pleased with the work that the Ministry of Tourism did, as well as the Ministry of Health, in ensuring that all of the sites and attractions were certified in time. The buses were certified and persons were getting ready. Understand that, look here, this could have turned around at any one time. And so it was for us that we are one of the countries, very few countries in the Caribbean who are now benefiting from having put in all the protocols in place and be ready to welcome cruise ships. Thank you very much, Mr. Herman, from Foster and INS. Of course, one of the operators who are definitely benefiting from the resumption of cruise tourism, there are many stakeholders in this game. And we've so far seen the far reaching effects that a shutdown of the tourism sector could have. Thankfully, we have seen the preparation being made very early in the game, very early on in the pandemic on the part of the Ministry of Tourism in sort of trying to prepare for the reopening of the tourism sector. And St. Lucia is one of the countries first in line in terms of the resumption of cruise tourism, first in line in terms of the resumption of tourism globally because of the measures that needed to be put in place were put in place very early on. We're seeing more and more of the passengers disembarking for the morning. You know, I said earlier, it was still very early for them to be coming off based on vacation and so on. But it's so lovely to see them coming out and listening to their numbers to experience St. Lucia. Hello, come talk to me. How are you? I'm well. Thank you so much. What a beautiful place. We're so glad to be here. What is your name and where are you from? My name is Angela Oldenburg. I'm from Appleton, Wisconsin. Wonderful. So tell us what does this mean to be able to vacation again? So beautiful to be able to be together with people, with family, and I think we all have a new perspective on things. When you have things taken away from you, you appreciate so much more when you can get together and do it again. So we're so grateful to be here. Wonderful. Tell us about your experience so far on the cruise vessel disembarking, et cetera. Wonderful, wonderful experience. Everybody on this boat is so service-oriented. They have treated us so wonderfully and they have followed all the guidelines. So we all feel very safe. We've all been vaccinated. We've all been negative tested. So we feel very safe and we're so grateful to be back and doing this again. Wonderful. What are your plans for today's excursions? Yes, we're going out on a catamaran to see the island and yes, just experience this beautiful place. Wonderful. Enjoy. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, so more passengers as you just saw disembarking for the morning and many of them do have planned excursions for the day. Of course, she indicated that she is a fully vaccinated against the COVID-19. And so definitely being able to experience a St. Lucia, you know, without supervision, I dare say. But the guided tours are definitely in place and these tour operators are definitely benefiting from the resumption of cruise tourism. Celebrity Summit at Port Castries is really a wonderful day. It's a wonderful moment, particularly coming off of the funk of the pandemic in the last 18 months or so. It's definitely, you know, owing well for our economy overall because the tourism sector has, we have needed the tourism sector to come back. We've heard from the government authorities everything that has been happening, everything that they've had to triumph, everything that they've had to go through in the past 18 months. And this really is an indication that we are on, you know, the up and up in terms of recuperating the sector, recuperating our economy coming off of this pandemic. Just want to remind you that while we are at Port Castries with the Celebrity Summit, we also have another cruise vessel that is on Anchorage at Pigeon Point in Rodney Bay. And so that is happening as well. Some 135 passengers on there as well. Okay, at this time, we just want to welcome the Public Relations Manager from the St. Lucia Tourism Authority, Missouri and Georgia's, come on set, come on set, come and scream. Good morning, good morning to you. Good morning, Jesse. I know you guys are always all smiles when you could see the manifestation of work that has been months in the making. Absolutely. I mean, it really speaks to the efforts. For us, I think it's satisfaction to see that many people can go back to work. We know the impact that the pandemic has had on the workforce. And you know, I mean, on the 29th of June when we saw the first cruise ship come through. For some of us, it was emotional. And then, you know, additional calls today, celebrity cruises, and then we have star breeze over at Rodney Bay a total of 545 visitors on Island. I mean, it really speaks well for the cruise sector and the progressive rebound that we're anticipating. July, we're expecting to see some more cruise calls. August is projecting very nicely and the rest of the year is starting to project very nicely. This I can truly say is a lot of industry effort. It's not just tourism. It's across the industry. There's a lot of effort into seeing cruise back. There's a lot of effort by the agencies. There's a lot of discussion that goes into it and a lot of negotiation by the San Dusha Tourism Authority. The efforts I must say have been incessant. We've not stopped. So whatever we can do to ensure that every sector rebounds, we've been doing just that. We're very excited as to where our reports for the month of June 21,357 visitor arrivals and that really has topped off the month of May with over 7,000 arrivals. It has surpassed our optimistic projections by 34%. We're seeing the U.S. market back at 92%. Growth on the U.K. market 4% for the month of June 2021 as well as the year to date. So for us, we're really optimistic. The Caribbean market as well is opening up very nicely and projecting nicely. We saw the return of the Interferi service on the 8th. You know, it was a sight to see when the ferry pulled into the port because we've not seen a ferry in so long. And with airlift, you know, there's several of them contributing to our arrivals for the summer period. Air Sunshine is one of them with direct routes from St. Croix and St. Kitts. So, you know, all of these are adding to our growth and our continued rebound amid the pandemic. And this is really what we're looking forward to seeing COVID at our backs. I mean, there are things that we probably would not be able to run away from in terms of the shift where we were with the pandemic, but we're just really looking forward to seeing better days ahead. Wonderful. I understand that the schedule that we would have received earlier on, it changes in terms of the cruise vessels coming into St. Lucia. Talk to us about that dynamic. What does that play here in terms of vessels that would have been scheduled on particular days being changed from time to time? Well, the schedule can change from time to time, but what we ensure is that there are announcements of cruise calls in advance so that people are aware. Of course, we know our vendors would want to be prepared. Our taxi drivers would want to be prepared. So we want to ensure that everybody is, you know, benefiting from cruise. And so we want to continue the dialogue in terms of when the ships are coming in and how many are coming and what is to be observed and all of that. Of course, the SLTA continues to work with the cruise lines in terms of setting their schedules. So that is where we're at in ensuring that we have a confirmed schedule for the rest of the year, the month, whatever it is, in terms of the cruise lines that we dialogue with. But for the updated cruise and ferry schedules, you can always visit the website, to stay abreast with that information. Okay, wonderful. Projections going into the future. Are you guys going continuing optimistically? We are continuing optimistically. Jesse, I must tell you, July has started off with a bang. We saw the introduction of a new service out of New Jersey and that is performing very well. It's three times weekly, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Cruise is back. We're seeing another two vessels here today. And the month of July is continuing very well. We even have our ancillary service providers, like the boaters reporting that it's a good month and they're looking forward to what the rest of the year brings. The Prime Minister described it, sorry, the Minister for Tourism described it as pent-up energy that people have in terms of wanting to travel on vacation after a very arduous 18-month period. I'm looking forward to vacation, so I can only imagine. But of course, people are tired of being, felt like they've been locked down. I mean, it's a term that we use throughout the entire pandemic. But to be honest, I think it's a time where people are very comfortable in terms of the confidence with vaccines. And so they're starting to travel again. I can tell you the month of July is projecting already very strongly. Even if the accommodation sector, some of them are performing at the maximum recommended capacity and moderate to full capacities where we're at in terms of... You find all of the various classifications of accommodations also benefiting. And first, that is just good news. I mean, you know, they say can't stop won't stop. I think amid all of the letter inspire you this team can't stop and won't stop. Yes. And finally, I just want to touch on the cruise that the tour operators today, the excursions happening today. All of this is happening within very secure and safe parameters. Absolutely. So for the vaccinated guests, they're able to disembark. They're able to pretty much enjoy St. Lucia or as we say, live like a local. So for the vaccinated guests, they're able to come down. December, they're able to rent a car. They're able to go out shopping and just free themselves up. For those undesignated tours, of course, they would have left with the tour guides and these are the fully vaccinated. And for those who are unvaccinated as well as those accompanying minors who are unvaccinated, they would pretty much be accommodated in a bubble. So there are set tours that they can go to. They enjoy these tours and then they are transferred back to the cruise ship for departure to the next spot of call. Wonderful. And Sea Breeze, Star Breeze, sorry. The cruise vessel in the north. We have 135 on Anchorage. Tell us what does that mean? How would that work in terms of St. Lucia and stakeholders being able to benefit today? Okay, so for Star Breeze, it's unencouraged at Rodney Bay like you mentioned. So of course, they would have to tend the shore. And of course, the same protocols would be observed. The health screening and the dispatch as necessary depends on who wants to go to do what, but the same protocols would apply. Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Wonderful. Enjoy the rest of the day. You as well. Are you headed up north now? Yes, we're headed up north now to meet Star Breeze. We also have a plaque that we want to hand over to them to commemorate their introduction of their service to St. Lucia. And we will be joining their team up there as well. Wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. Ms. Jureen Georges, Public Relations Manager over at the St. Lucia Tourism Authority. You know, speaking to us about the gains that have so far been made in the tourism sector overall, not just cruise tourism, but also in terms of airlift to the island, some 91%, we've had 91% of our arrivals from the U.S. markets coming back and also a 4% increase from the U.K. markets. Definitely some concerns there in terms of, you know, coming off of their own lockdowns and their own measures to deal and to curtail COVID-19 in their country. But as Ms. Jureen Georges indicated, they were optimistic nonetheless and we've so far seen what the pent up energies and anxieties of the pandemic has resulted in. It's really, visitors, tourists wanting to come to St. Lucia, wanting to experience the islands, having the vacation experience as soon as possible to get over the pandemic funk. I just want to let you know, if you're just joining, we have the Celebrity Summit in Port Castries. We also have the cruise vessel Star Breeze in the north of the island. They have some 135 passengers up north and down here we have some 410 passengers. Many of them are disembarking right now very early in the morning, very early in the morning so that they could go on to their tours for the day. So many excursions have been planned for many of the passengers this morning and we do hope that they have a good time. Yeah, many of them have been waiting on this a very long time. The last passenger that we just interviewed did indicate that she was on a cruise vessel, you know, at the time that the pandemic really hit and so she's come back on this very same cruise vessel to enjoy her cruise experience to the full with her grandchildren. So they're sentiment attached. There is relaxation, leisure. There is the need to come off of the heightened tension of the pandemic and this is what I'm seeing is really fueling these individuals who are coming on vacation, not only in St. Lucia. We're seeing tourism, you know, on the up and up globally, but St. Lucia is one of the destinations that have put the measures in place very early on and so it's able to benefit very early on as well. We remind you that the resumption of the cruise tourism area in St. Lucia is still really in a preliminary phase, so to speak, you know, wetting of the toes right now in terms of getting to understand what the market is, what the visitors are after what they're trying to do right now, especially post pandemic, even looking at, you know, taking into consideration those who have been fully vaccinated as opposed to those who are not yet fully vaccinated. We got the assurance from the Ministry of Tourism that there would, there has been a delineation being made and these individuals, those who have not been fully vaccinated, they will be on supervised tours if that's what they want to do, but certainly not allowed to go and mingle with the population because as you know, we had some 30,000 individuals in St. Lucia receiving their first dose of the vaccine, close to 30,000 receiving their second dose of the vaccine. So we're nowhere close to being a fully protected, attaining herd immunity as a population and so there is a lot of safety security measures being put in place from disembarkation and that is not just the government officials, but also the celebrity, the cruise officials, the cruise crew taking all precaution to ensure that the individuals who are visiting St. Lucia are doing so in a safe manner and protecting not only themselves, but also our population while we try to come back on the up and up for our sector. If you're just joining us, good morning, good morning to you. Today is Tuesday the 13th of July 2021. We have two cruise vessels, so this is making three cruise vessels that have come to St. Lucia, Port St. Lucia, since the pandemic and we've seen the inaugural call happening on the 29th of June and that was a celebrity vessel coming and as you heard Miss George's indicates that it was an emotional time, particularly for the officials, you know, because here you are trying to make ends meet. You're trying to make trying to have all the measures in place, working hard abroad and here as well to ensure that as soon as persons are ready, as soon as we come out of this pandemic situation that we're able to restore the lifeblood of St. Lucia, that is the tourism industry and as I indicated earlier, it is still preliminary. It's still in a preliminary phase, wetting of the toes, so to speak, until we can come to a place where everyone who enjoyed the spoils of the crew sector can do so comfortably as they did pre-pandemic. We're seeing more and more of the individuals. Hello, more and more of the individuals, passengers coming, disembarking for their crews today. Hi, you want to talk to me quickly? How are you? Great. Tell me your name and where you're from. Melissa Casablanca and I am from Newton, Georgia. Casablanca, I like it. I like it. So tell us what your experience has been for, so to speak. On the cruise, it's been amazing. We only have about 400 passengers on board, so it's like you're on your own private yacht. So it's been great and the islands have been wonderful, so glad to get back to cruising. So how much of the square footage have you taken up? Not much, but I've moved around a lot and we've had a great time. My friend Hilary, this is her first cruise. I told her I said not all cruise experiences will be like this where there's so few people, but it has been absolutely amazing and we're so glad to be in St. Lucia today. You might be asking, are you fully vaccinated? Yes, it was required for this ship. So yes, but I was in the education field. I was the director of special education for my school system. I just retired. So it was very important to me to get vaccinated as well as my son, he's only 12. He's vaccinated as well. So what are your plans for today in terms of excursion? We're doing the beach break. Yeah, so we're super excited and then we're hoping to come back and just walk around a little bit and see the sights because I was hoping that you're going to walk around castries, the city. Okay, that's definitely our plan. We were so excited that when we were told we would be able to do that because when we were in Barbados yesterday, you weren't allowed to go anywhere on your own. You could only do shore excursions with the ship. Okay, so what are the experiences have you had so far in terms of cruise? As far as the cruise is concerned, the safety measures in place are amazing. I can't say enough good things. The experience has just been incredible. Where did the cruise start? So far we've only stopped in Barbados in here. It left out of St. Lawrence. Okay, wonderful. Do enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you, Miss Casablanca. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Enjoy. So more and more of the passengers are disembarking for their tours today and we just heard Miss Casablanca, sorry, a retired educator from the United States indicating that, you know, she has plans for beach tour today as well as going about the city and one of the requirements is okay. One of the requirements for this cruise period is that they would have had to be fully vaccinated. So that's one thing that we can be assured of for the Celebrity Summit today that they are all fully vaccinated and that's okay. So Celebrity Summit, more and more passengers coming off for their guided tour. I just want to welcome the Prime Minister, Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Information, Broadcasting, Culture and the Creative Industries. Good morning to you, Miss Vite. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Jessie. Definitely the manifestation of months of hard work, preparation, back-end work. We're seeing it now. Emotional, a little bit of satisfaction, a relief, but still in the preliminary stages, yeah? Absolutely, you know, I know you say months. Yes, it's technically months, but I prefer saying a year and months, you know, to really give it the stretch of time that it has taken. But yes, for us sincerely, this is a very elated moment. This is a very happy time for us. But for us is just the beginning because, I mean, when you look at a vessel of this magnitude that would normally have capacities of over 2,000, and we coming in today with 410 passengers, you know, and just about 800 or so crew, it just signals the start. And two weeks ago or week and a half when we welcome Celebrity Millennium, it was a start. And for us, this is just a signal of hope and a signal of faith because you look at the Millennium as the start of it. And then when you're able to ensure you negotiate and you put systems in place with the relative stakeholders, even those persons on the ground who have been laboring with us and to see, sorry, and to see that you could have a repeat of an arrival, you know, in these times, it really signals hope and faith for the employees and those operators were dependent on that part of the tourism industry. So it's definitely a rewarding moment for us. I know that plans were already made for the delineation between a fully vaccinated, non-fully vaccinated, but for this particular cruise, persons would have had to be fully vaccinated and it's all the better for the officials on the ground. Yes, yes. For us in starting off because we really using it as a testing period for crews, we wanted to ensure that we had a path of less risk. And so for us starting off, we got the cooperation of Ministry of Health to say that we only accept in fully vaccinated passengers, you know, at the onset. And this vessel is actually coming in fully vaccinated passengers, except for the children that you have seen earlier on who are coming through and do not meet the requirements for taking the vaccine. But this is another plus for us because fully vaccinated guests, whether coming through by cruise or sea or by air, our land bestorism, they are able to wonder about just like you and I, Jesse, and able to patronize. So for us, that is the strong point of ensuring that while we mitigate risk, we also try a user path where we could ensure some level of spend within the economy. By no means are we creating an expectation that we will have the sort of spend that we've had before. I mean, we wouldn't be able to accelerate from zero to 100 so quick. But in doing so, we asking for the patients of the public. I mean, there will be some vendors who will not get patronized. There will be some persons who even selling worse with the water coolers on the streets that will not be patronized, some taxi drivers. But the little trickle that we get just really understand that while you are not able to get the benefit today, that probably your neighbor or your colleague is probably getting that benefit. And so the testing period doesn't bring the immediate explosive rewards that we would like. But the semblance of hope of what is to come is sufficient for us to keep on ensuring that we keep on the pace with the cruise lines executive so that we are able to get more cruise arrivals on the itinerary for the rest of this year. It's important that we stay ready for any eventual. Yes. Yes. Essentially, I mean, when you look around, there are people who are making the concerted effort to abide by the protocols and we continuously applaud them for that. But there is still a large number of us as inclusions. I mean, it's very visible that when you walk around and you go out in some spots that there is an obvious, you know, absence of of adhering to the protocols. And I mean, our voice to raise to that is to say that enemies have that happens at this time. We all have to, you know, sort of introspect and take some personal responsibility. But there's a way to deal with that is really to try and be cooperative and do your part so that we don't have to get a repeat of, you know, what we had 15 months ago. Because I certainly Jesse, I don't know if I have enough fuel to go back, you know, to reopen a tourism industry. It has been a massive undertaking. I mean, not just for me, but for my staff at the Ministry of Tourism was really who have really stood by me for the GIS staff. I mean, they also part of our ministry and Jesse and camera guys, Roger Fario, all of you in the studio, you've been doing an amazing job. So this is just to say that is not only just one cohort of persons were impacted by COVID and the non adherents. We will all be an impacted in large measure. So we're really calling on the public, each of us just let's pay our part. Let's be cooperative. Let's just be watchful our neighbor. It's really the times where we say a community raise a child. You know, we really calling for the community, you know, to be with St. Glouche at this time and really protect our industry. Protecting the tourism industry is protecting all industries because tourism really has tentacles in all of the industry's financial services, utility companies, manufacturing, just going to the normal retail everything you could think of, construction. Tourism has a path to play in it and everybody benefits. We know they have been, you know, negative spins and negative connotations, you know, tainted with tourism. And you know, the advantages and disadvantages, but we need to move to highlight the advantages and keep chipping off the block for all those we have seen as disadvantages so that we could turn it into positives. And I this period provides us the opportunity to do so because we have really started back on a clean slate and it is not an easy road to walk and it is not an easy talk to talk, but we have to stick to it until we are true champions to really drain out all of the benefits we can as a people of that tourism industry. Wonderful. And on that note, I think, you know, there's not much more I can ask of you, but the wind is doing a lot. It's doubling. I have to double. We relieve you. Yes, yes, but I really want to say St. Lucian's is a very proud woman to see that the level of cooperation we've had to take us back to reopen in our economy. Yes, there's still a long road, but there's a lot for us to be thankful for and a lot of praise and commendation for us to give each other. So I'm really hoping that they spend as much as much as much as they can today. Yes, yes, but just looking forward to the next vessel and the next vessel, the next vessel, the next and the next and the next. Yes, thank you very much. You were a permanent secretary in the ministry of tourism speaking to us there. Thank you very much, Miss Donna Lynn Vitay. Thank you very much for having me. And we won't keep her any longer because we know their attentions are divided between the two cruise vessels, one in Port Castries and the other in in Rodney Bay. Quick interview. Quick interview. Yeah, sure. Which which how do you are you fully vaccinated? Is the question. Yes, I'm fully vaccinated. You can pull down the mask then. I'm fully vaccinated have been for several months. Wow, no problems with it whatsoever. Wonderful. What has your experience been like for the cruise from Barbados? And so on. It's been excellent and we are so glad to be back cruising again. Absolutely. So are you a cruiser? Yes, I am. Wonderful. Just tell us what are your plans for the are you having an excursion today or? Yes, we are. We're going to go see the island of St. Lucia. Wonderful. So you're not sure where you're going specifically? No, I'm not. But we do hope that you enjoy the day. We will. It's absolutely gorgeous here. Wonderful. So coming off of the pandemic how are you feeling now? Great. Yeah. I feel great. Wonderful. Enjoy the rest of the day. Thank you so much. Bye bye. More and more happy passengers are going about their their excursions for the day. They lost a passenger they're indicating that she's not sure she's going but she's definitely looking forward to having a good time in St. Lucia. A cruiser herself definitely excited to be able to a cruise again. Many we have many individuals are particularly the individuals who are retired who enjoy going on a cruise every year every six months and they're able to do so once more. I just want to remind you we're just wrapping up for this morning's welcome of the Celebrity Summit to St. Lucia. They have birthed in port castries some 410 passengers aboard. We've seen quite a few disembark for the morning so far to go on their guided tours and we also have in the north of the island another cruise vessel that is the star breeze having 135 passengers and of course they are on anchorage so if they want to come to the island they can just tender and come over to the island for their tours and what have you but definitely things are looking good in terms of the schedule that we're seeing for the cruise the cruise season this year. We had on the 29th of June the first vessel that was the Celebrity Millennium coming and as I indicated earlier an emotional time a sigh of relief for many of the officials who have been working tirelessly to resume the cruise cruise tourism here on island and of course we know many of the stakeholders on the ground who stand to benefit not just up to operators vendors but you know we heard from the PS in the ministry of the indirect benefits to our utility sector to transport and so on so you know tourism is touching every single part every aspect every facet of our lives here on island and we're definitely very much grateful to see the resumption of cruise tourism in a guided safe secure manner we know the parameters that have been laid out by the officials the ministry of tourism to ensure that those who perhaps are coming later on through the coming later on on the other vessels will be coming on if they are not fully vaccinated there's a plan for them if they are fully vaccinated as we've seen with this vessel that they can also enjoy Saint Lucia much the same my name is Jesse Leonce it's all the time that we have for now but from a point Seraphine from the celebrity celebrity summit point where in in point point Seraphine this morning I'd like to thank you so much for watching of course the beginning of good things to come here in Saint Lucia do enjoy the rest of your day and stay tuned to NTN for more programming goodbye