 Government Information Service and the National Television Network. It's a program designed to bring to the fore the policies and plans of the government of St. Lucia. You all viewers will have the opportunity to participate in our program 90-minute live discussion via social media. You can send us your messages and definitely we will be happy to have you with us. I'm Ryan O'Brien and with me again once more my co-host Lisa Joseph. Lisa and another program today in Focus. And it's promising to be a very interesting one, one packed with information. We're discussing one of the key sectors for the St. Lucia economy that is tourism and but before we do that we'll get into what is what will become customary a look at some of the top stories in the government for the week. Yes and definitely the Minister for Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, the honour and Leonard Morteut says moves our foot for the reintroduction of local government elections. Minister Morteut believes that town and village councils can best assist central government in determining and meeting the needs of constituents. The minister made a comments as he addressed a retreat for parliamentarians and local government officials more from Chevrolet Marios. This exercise is meant to empower you and to put you in a better position to carry out your mandate as local government. As part of continuing efforts to strengthen the local government system in St Lucia, the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment hosted a three-day retreat for local government members of parliament, mayors and chairpersons. The retreat was held at the Bay Gardens Hotel and will run from August 6th to August 8th 2019. One major undertaking of the consultation is legislative review of St Lucia's local authority system and to ensure that legislation is responsive to current issues. Minister for Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, Honourable Leonard Morteut stated that his goal is to empower local government by creating a more effective and efficient local authority system. Well certainly we want to empower local government councils to a much greater extent that will entail providing more resources, that will entail some legislative changes as you indicated and some of the changes will include for example when it comes to property tax collection and the administration of property taxes that they would preside over the collection of property taxes and while most of the revenue would be remitted to central government, to the Inland Revenue Department, a percentage of it would be retained by the local government entity. If the local government entity is responsible for collection I think there will be greater compliance, more revenue will be collected, more revenue will be generated for the Inland Revenue Department and while I'm not advocating for dismantling accountability I'm saying that we can dismantle some of the bureaucratic processes that will make for greater efficiency. Minister Morteut also emphasized the need for local government elections to be introduced in St. Lucia. Since 1979 we terminated local government elections. Very often people complain about the death of leadership in this country. Well if you have no nurturing, no breeding ground for leaders do not expect that leaders will come from the blue. I believe through local government we can harness the talents and nurture the potential of would-be leaders who can through local government emerge and get involved in national elections after going through local government elections. Minister Morteut stated that input from parliamentary representatives advance the discussion on ways for councils to utilize available resources and opportunities. I'm hoping that given the involvement of parliamentary representatives that when I go to parliament and make the presentation that we need those changes that I would have the full support given the fact that they would have had an input and would have participated in the process and they would have a full understanding and appreciation of what it is we're trying to do. Spokesperson for My World Civility Global, Ambassador Clive Rivers stated the importance for having productive dialogue. It's important that we have civil true dialogue that's what it takes if if people feel marginalized that they have no voice that becomes a problem so we have to find ways to bring everyone to the table everyone to the table. People have to understand that that change doesn't take place quickly you have to turn the wills of change so to even engage people to a new way of thinking that's the critical concept. In 2012 the government of St. Lucia established the Constituency Council's Act which set in motion a review of the procedures and functions of local government authorities reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment. I am Chivre Marius. And Prime Minister Hon. Alan Chastney during the 2019-2020 budget address identified the education sector as one of the key areas in the development process for St. Lucia. Hon. Chastney indicated then that government would be embarking on a series of programs aimed at revolutionizing the education system and the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development has taken a fundamental step in that direction with the awarding of scholarships under the Equip Project for Teacher Training. 18 teachers will be taking up studies at the bachelor's and master's levels in a wide range of subject areas. Anissa Antoine has that report. The government of St. Lucia has partnered with the Caribbean Development Bank to fund a four-year scholarship program for teachers under the Education Quality Improvement Project Equip. The program is geared towards enhancing capacity to improve teacher quality, relevance of education and instructional effectiveness across the education sector. Scholarship awardees will be trained in a variety of areas including education for gifted learners, curriculum and instructions, school counseling and social work at education and music education. The Minister with Responsibility for Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development Hon. Dr. Gail Rigabet stated that this initiative is the government's response to the existing and emerging needs in the education sector. You will have observed based on the areas highlighted that we are catering for the multiple intelligences of our students. We are moving away from a very universal and one-size-fits-all curriculum to catering for our students who have various talents, who are gifted, who may have learning difficulties and to ensure that indeed no child is left behind. Pertra Jessen who will be attending the Micro University College in Jamaica is amongst the 18 individuals who received scholarships. Jan Promise and myself, we are going to complete our Masters in Social Work and Counseling and we hope to come back and to implement what we've learned. It is an area which is much needed within the education sector and we will be able to work alongside the Ministry of Education in terms of achieving the goals, overall goals of the ministry. So I am excited like I said, I'm happy and proud and again I say thanks on behalf of everyone for you know extending this opportunity to all of us. The first cohort of scholars will leave the island on August 22nd 2019. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. The infrastructure, ports and energy embarked on the second phase of the Traffic Flow Management Program on Monday. This involves the construction of a second northbound lane from Sandals Halcyon to the Shock Roundabout. The area between Sandals Halcyon and the Shock Roundabout has been identified as a major bottleneck leading to heavy traffic congestion during peak commute hours daily. It is against that backdrop that the Traffic Flow Improvement Program was conceptualized. Upon completion, the travel experience for more than 27,000 daily commuters would be improved. Engineers and technical experts from the Department of Infrastructure, Forts and Energy along with representatives of the contracting firm CO Williams Construction Limited on Monday guarded at the site ahead of excavation works scheduled to begin Tuesday 13 August 2019. Showman Sylvester is the senior engineer in the Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Energy. The objective is to ensure that we have a falling dual carriageway going from the Friendship Roundabout all the way to the Shock Roundabout. So what you notice happening at the Sandals intersection where you have two lanes merging into one will no longer be. So you'll have that two lane access where you'll be able to just traverse instead of what we have the bottleneck we have between Sandals, which actually is a sub point where persons can actually have legal incidents and accidents. So we are looking to avoid this and ensure that the road remains free and clean for all your users. During a consultation forum with business interests in the vicinity of the project site, along with the minibus and taxi sector and utility companies, government received the support of the stakeholders. A major demonstration of that backing came from Sandals International which allocated a substantial amount of its private property for the project. With several businesses in the vicinity of the project site and the volume of traffic constantly along the route, officials say heavy works will be undertaken mainly at night to minimize impact. Steve Brinkhurst is the Contracts Manager at CEO Williams Construction Ltd. The first phase of the works is actually building structures on this side, retaining walls, extending drainage without little or no interference with the current traffic movement. The second phase is the interesting phase for us because we have to mill or grind away the existing asphalt and put new asphalt down. We're planning to do those works after hours, you know, at night time to minimize the traffic disruption. The problem here is that we cannot really divert this volume of traffic around this area, there's no routes. So that's what we agree with the ministry, we actually will do the work, the high impact work during the night. The construction of a second north bound lane from Sandals Halsey into the Shock Roundabout from spot of the government's wider plan for an improved road network in the north of the island. Senior engineer in the Department of Infrastructure, Sherman Sylvester, says a phased approach is being taken. The first part of the project initiative actually started with the wheeler island gases where we looked at soft measures on reducing the right turn into there. This is the second portion and then we are going to go on to the other sections, for example the Shock Hill, the Marys Hill intersection, the Rodney Bay intersection. This is government's intervention in physics. The Sandals to Shock Roundabout road widening project is scheduled to be completed in two months at a cost of $2.5 million. From the government information service, Lyssa Joseph reporting. Well Lyssa, thanks for that report and we've had three very interesting reports on our segment there, our new segment. The whole idea of local government, that is something that I'm sure will be greatly appreciated by the members of the public as it eases a lot of regular transactions that the public would have to do rather than have to go into the more institutionalized and it could be done much more locally within the various constituencies on island. We're definitely reducing public frustration with the system but most importantly, I think in terms of governance and being able to determine what the needs of the various communities are because we have all of these small communities within larger communities but the local government officials are on the ground. Central government is always concerned with what the bigger picture is and I think that for local government officials to assist more in being able to manage these communities, whether it be from the solid waste standpoint, being able to perhaps collect some taxes we did hear from the minister saying that they can play a bigger role in that aspect, being able to know where some of those problem areas are for infrastructure, little community infrastructure needs so you can have the local government officials having the election process is a good thing because then I think the public will definitely see themselves as being a stakeholder in what that process is and they can have an absolute and definitive voice in whom they elect and who they believe that would be working to the best interest and it also allows now for these individuals to have more accountability to the public and of course to central government. So the timeliness are very important factors but we need to move on to the next segment teacher training and that's something I'm sure that the teachers would welcome and the whole fact that scholarships might be available so that would be given in for the incentive. And I'm excited about this Ryan because we often hear the complaint that the education system is not meeting the everyday order what the modern era requires and so to have teachers go off to study as many as 18 of them on scholarship in Jamaica and in Trinidad it speaks to the government's commitment now to developing an education sector that is going to look at some of the non-traditional areas. So if you have more teachers going off and being trained in the arts the theater music then we can now begin to teach more of our students how to make use of their talents and I heard the education minister speak about not just culture but how now can you generate revenue from culture. So everything is now business so it's not just about saying that you can play the violin but how can you now sustain yourself get a livelihood out of that and so I'm excited to see how this program under equip is going to multiply itself and I think we can definitely have some great turn around in that. So have the northbound commute is certainly plans to really improve on that. But you travel on that road so do I and the thousands of others we have visitors as well. The bottleneck I think now just having to depend on the courtesy of drivers I don't think that's working much anymore and so we need to have that road expansion in order to accommodate I think we have something like 27,000 daily commuters this it's a large volume and in order for us to be able to contract business and and have people for productivity in the workplace if you need to get to work on time move around in a timely fashion definitely this expansion of the road is going to lead to that. Yes and that particular junctions really had this fair share of crashes although some of them not that extensive but certainly we'll be able to ease the traffic congestion. But also to mention that this is just one of the areas problematic areas because we know the shock hill that's another problematic area and we did hear the senior engineer indicate that area is going to be looked at after the shock roundabout area is dealt with. So good news. Yes Lisa certainly so that's our first segment on infocus today we'll take our first break but we'll be back. Thank you so much for staying in focus and now we're going to the tourism sector full throttle. For Saint Lucia the tourism sector has proven to be exceedingly important what we before was the lifeblood of the economy. Just to give you some statistics as we set the scene for you for the first five month period that's January to May of this year the island recorded 185,568 stayover arrivals and that represented 6.1% more than the same period the preceding year and that made it the largest number of stayover arrivals ever recorded for Saint Lucia in the history of Saint Lucia. Fast forward to June one month later we have peaked at 34,040 that's up 9% from June of last year so this means year to date growth has increased so we're at 6.5% that's up from 6.1% the last month as I told you earlier and that figure also marked the fifth record breaking month for the year for Saint Lucia so that sets the scene of how important tourism is to the economy of Saint Lucia to the thousands of Saint Lucia and to gain direct benefit from the tourism industry. To flesh out all of the issues of tourism we have with us the Minister for Tourism Information Broadcasting Culture and Creative Industries Honourable Dominic Fede. Thank you so much I know it has been a very painstaking time but you've made time for us so thank you so much for that. Thank you thank you very much Lisa it's good to be here. As I indicated tourism for us we continue to see that boom that bubble is growing and some people may be a little apprehensive that at some point this bubble is going to burst we'll talk about some of the contingencies a little later on but the pressures of the tourism business because the business of tourism is changing and now we're seeing with Virgin Atlantic we're beginning to see how things can shift moving parts when and how did the government find out about Virgin was it blindsided this request by Virgin Atlantic for the sort of what we call the subsidy? Well they've been having issues for a long time I mean if you look at the aviation industry you would see that Virgin has been planning new routes and their network planning has been very active so they've pulled out of Dubai they've pulled out of Los Angeles and then the ownership of Virgin has changed as well so Richard Branson the founder of the airline would have played a significant role in the decision making he's only a 25 percent shareholder and so you now really have a board that manages Virgin Atlantic but it's now it's being controlled by KLM Delta and Air France those three and the preposition the business value the philosophy is a lot different and you would expect that there'd be some differences in terms of how the airline is structured and governed 21 years ago it's a very long time a lot has changed in St Lucia's tourism I mean you've been talking about the figures years ago when Virgin came we depended on the UK market more than we do now in fact the Caribbean market has surpassed the UK market in terms of arrivals that's very critical to us Canada didn't play a significant role as it does now and certainly the United States wasn't the forerunner and the United States market is just growing exponentially we have not began to tap into the opportunities that exist and so the business has shifted it would have become very difficult for us to pay the money to Virgin that they requested whilst we were getting flights from the US without any subsidy requirements so in the last eight months or so we've had seven flights a week from Miami and then we're just announced another flight from Chicago and these flights came about because of market forces the destination is performing the airlines have done their research and they believe that this route is going to be profitable there are a lot of great things happening in the US in comparison to the UK the economic forecast for the US is a lot more bright you look at what's going to happen with Brexit in the UK we can't that's that's a fact I think most people are leaving out of that equation absolutely so it'll be very difficult in the short term to get business from the UK for the Caribbean it becomes a question of sustainability if you invest the money can you get a return of 20 years from the money that you put into this airline and that's that really is what it boils down to what's going to be the return it's 7% of the business virgin and you know it requires 20% additional to what we already spend on the UK market so this would have meant we would have given virgin an addition a mountain to 20% of our total global market it just doesn't make any business sense but some people are concerned that even though it only represents 7% of our global arrivals that's still significant coming from that side of the world to balance things out so what have we done to show up and to make sure that we're not seeing a significant fallout from that well certainly I mean when you look at the unused capacity of St Lucia we've come close to bridging that gap I was worried for a long term about us being able to sustain the British Airways flight which comes in and we've only managed to sustain it because of a tag with Trinidad so it comes to St Lucia and then it goes on to Trinidad so we're basically sharing a flight with Trinidad and so what I believe now is that all of this unused capacity all of these concerns that may have existed before about sustaining the British Airways flight I think that they have now disappeared because now perhaps the supply and demand for our island in terms of air seats are probably now at the level that is balanced and that is sustained now when we look at unused capacity we have 18,000 unused capacity that is removing version from the equation but other carriers and in addition to that as well we've just had confirmation that British Airways will be adding an additional 7,000 seats this winter and that is part of a longer term goal to add even more seats so we have a meeting in September which is critical and I'm sure I'll be happy to report to you and the nation in terms of how those talks went but we have seen a number of other airlines albeit charter airlines that have come on board and have given us offers but we want to see how the discussions go first and so you're still discussing a virgin we are how we are open to all of our stakeholders we're not alienating anyone I think that this is not a fight virgin made a business decision and St Lucia has got to make a business decision and that's all it is really one of the question on this with in the UK market we've seen a 15 percent decrease and a 21 percent decrease from the rest of the world is this a virgin Atlantic result no because the flights are going to be discontinued in June next year so we've got all of our seats there's been no reduction in air seats from St Lucia this is just a question of the market the year today figure from the UK though is in the positive so I think that the figure you've seen is where June last year would have performed less than June 2019 so that that is what sorry I mean June 2019 would have declined significantly from what we did in June last year but year to date the UK is certainly in the black let me see minister a live certainly must be a concern for every tourism minister all around the world maybe not just in St Lucia and is it something that preoccupies your ministry in terms of a continuous assessment as to other carriers that can come in or would a situation like what has been presented now with Virgin Atlantic cause that to be much more in the forefront or this is something that your ministry continuously looks at to look at other options so that in the event like we have now that you would have been in a much more favorable position to deal with that sort of impact yeah what we've seen exponential growth in terms of the air seats from the United States market so the global air situation were definitely in the positive so that is really really good yes to your question it preoccupies us all the time the more seats you have the more competitive you can be as a destination in fact one of the issues that confronts us now is the whole question of airfare from the United States market and that is because of the fact that from all of our gateways you have just one airline so when you go to Miami it's controlled by American Airlines when you go to Delta it's in Atlanta JetBlue controls the JFK airport and you go down the line and you see that the airlines really have a monopoly situation from major US gateways that's an untenable situation and you've got to try your best to create competition on these routes so that the destination of Saint Lucia remains competitive you know what's amazing though is how strong the demand for Saint Lucia really is because despite the high airfares in comparison to other Caribbean islands all of our flights coming to Saint Lucia for the month of July I just saw a preliminary report which suggested that they came at a 90% load factor and that was the average of US airlines when we looked at the high side it was 94% by one particular airline so that's pretty pretty high as far as load factors are concerned and you know despite high airfares we're seeing this kind of traction and demand for Saint Lucia tells you about the work we've done in terms of repositioning the brand in terms of being a lot more visible being out there more we have transitioned a lot of our marketing resources from tour operator relationships and put that directly into consumer marketing initiatives I we feel justified to end the jazz festival which hemorrhaged the tourist board's budget and we have said for a long time that while the festival had grown so big it was also affecting significantly the ability of the island to promote the destination the jazz festival didn't and still does not have the kind of traction for the amount of money we were spending 14 million EC dollars it became a national party and it certainly wasn't a tourism marketing event yes you got some business but not 14 million dollars worth of business so what we did is to come in and to restructure that significantly out of a budget of 34 million you spent 9 million in administration 14 million in jazz it meant that you had very little to promote Europe the UK the United States and Canada it really wasn't enough money so we had to make some adjustments and I think that those adjustments have actually paid off room stock has certainly been tagged alongside with the LF how we doing in terms of that ratio in terms of your your LF persons coming in and your room stock to be able to accommodate them how are we faring presently in terms of that ratio a lot better than we did between the periods of 1997 to 2006 in fact when we came in to when we assumed office Prime Minister Shastani at the time was Minister of Tourism and took a lot of blows because he saw that there was a deficit in terms of the air lift situation while the room stock had grown a lot there was a lot of construction taking place pre-world cup in preparation for the world cup there were some good incentives that hoteliers got and the industry had expanded rapidly but the air seats did not and the decision taken by the previous government to let American Airlines go was also a decision that that impaired that situation and made it worse so we had to come in to see how best we can because you're absolutely right if you have rooms how are people going to get here you need seats to correspond with the room so if you look at the national occupancy averages from then to now you would see that the occupancy averages are much higher and that is because we took a very simplistic but pragmatic view to the development of tourism the other thing is to make sure as well that we get a better return for everyone in the country so now what preoccupies me more than air lift is how do I give the people of St. Lucia a better deal from tourism so you see that we're doing the village tourism project encouraging more and more for the non-traditional accommodation sector in fact they are more locals in accommodation that accommodation sector where locals are selling their apartments and villas and Airbnb is growing faster than the traditional hotel occupancy rates so while the destination there Lisa mentioned here today we are 6.1 the report we're getting from Airbnb suggests that in that sector we're 15 percent up and that is certainly causing hotel here is a lot of concerns and sleepless nights that's a issue we want to talk about extensively but go ahead of the point but it shows you that there are a lot of people benefiting from tourism and so indirectly what what we have to focus on is making sure that we sustain this boom that we regulate we set the standards and we set a philosophy for moving forward and we ensure that this spirals the brand St. Lucia and we've taken it let her inspire what let her inspire us inspire you because we want to make it very personal but we're going more on the luxury end and you indicated that people are willing to pay because we've done so much work in building the brand what then is um that sort of pocket of concern that perhaps that if we would this bubble were to burst that we would not be able to sustain what's happening with the brand at the luxury end how are we maintaining that even though we were to have some trepidation in the world that the brand St. Lucia is not affected at all or minimally the certainly I think it came from the point of view of the consumer we looked at what's been happening the changes that are taking place in our consumer trends for travel and they trend certainly show that people are not into coming to destinations that just offer the experience of laying in a beach chair on the beach so the idea of mass tourism is is yeah no no that's gone but people are now looking for experiences people are looking for islands with typography people are looking for things that are rare what informs a lot of the travel now is is instagram and the rest of social media and you know millenials are certainly taking over and dominating that space they are the future markets and so you've got to begin as a destination to restructure your branding position to reflect something that is with the times so that the youth that are looking for these unique experiences are far different from their parents who wanted a controlled environment who wanted to relax and there's still some business there but I think the bulk of it now and the bulk of the growth is going to come from the experiences so what we found is that this brand positioning did help us better than you know they all simply beautiful st. lusia tagline I mean I love that I grew up with that and personally I prefer it but this is a business decision where we're beginning to position the brand in a way where we're saying to the future of travel come and be inspired and on the ground a lot of things need to happen in order to maintain the brand so what are we doing for some of these we look at the tours we're looking for the exclusions so what what is happening in that respect well we have a lot of work that's going on in so far you would have seen in the village tourism initiatives we have five new beaches being opened one of them is being done by a community group you see what's happening in library for example with some yachting tourism and a lot of it is organically we can't take praise of the government but I think that when people see the bigger picture they are then inspired to get involved and they then see opportunity and that is the point is to make sure that you inspire not just the market forces but also inspire communities to to take the bull by the horns as we say in the old cliche and to invest and to get involved in this exciting industry which is growing and presenting such vast array of opportunities for so many people so we're opening four new beaches this winter to better distribute the um amount of tourists that go on the beaches so that we can help to mitigate the user conflicts between hotel guests and cruise ship passengers you have a big issue in rodney bay and also in sulfur and you've got to get it under control to make sure that our coral reefs are not overused and they're not victims of over tourism and overcrowding on the beaches as well absolutely for some people who may want some sort of seclusion while they're enjoying the amenity let's not forget our locals I mean you've got to also ensure that those parts that they like to go that you do your best to avoid them you know the infusion of tourists in large numbers that would cause additional user conflicts but you've got to manage the thing well on the days when we like to go to the beaches on Saturdays and Sundays that's when most of the flights are leaving and coming so that's the kind of seven-day cycle so that works well in that you know the beaches are sought after by tourists mostly Monday to Friday and the big arrival and departure days in the hotels are the days that we like to go so I think that we've been very fortunate that that's been working let's move to booking.com that is a sort of for people a little worrying because it is something now how the world is now beginning to conduct business as far as tourism is concerned there has been that request or demand if you want the 15 commission from service charge you've indicated that it can't work and it can't be not just from a Senusia perspective but from a Caribbean perspective as chairman of the Caribbean tourism organization in your discussions what has been the latest development with that issue well the latest development is that we're putting together a private public sector team to have a very strong meeting with booking.com the private sector has already written to them my letter is on its way to them as well to say that this is unconscionable the issue for your viewers is that the service charge that they receive from the booking they would like to commission that as well but this is going into employees these are employees that are of hotels and that should go straight to their bottom line and not to the hotel or to booking.com and so I think that there is consensus in the part of the private and public sector that what booking.com is doing it has severe ramifications for the future of this business and if we allow them to get away with it then I think it will certainly impact the bottom line of all of us. Globally though the Caribbean can really depend on some of the international partners as well because booking.com by virtually if you want to call it a conglomerate so are you getting or have you had any sort of dialogue with some of the international partners on this very issue to tell unequivocally to booking.com that you just can't meet that demand but unfortunately I don't think it's illegal and that is the problem in the absence of legislation so legislatively we've got to look at what we can do as a region as well to protect our employees from such inhumane positions it's unconscionable and we've got to do everything and use lobbying yes but then we've also got to put the laws down. Okay we're very good at shifts again and look at the growth of tourism and some of the areas generally still over and cruise and certainly one aspect of solution life and culture would be the impact of the contribution of solution carnival towards the overall project and product actually can you tell us about the sort of impact that you've been realizing recently now that most of our festivals have been restructured with the aim of ensuring that we get more visitor arrivals and persons who will come on love the experience and also to spend some money as an individual. Well it's an amazing figure for July it says that July of 2019 performed 25 percent better than July of 2018 and so you know during carnival I heard the layman on the street and everyone saying this is the best of a carnival and you know I've never seen so many tourists here for carnival so many foreigners have come in and so on and when I checked the numbers I mean it was an astounding 25 percent increase July over last year so that is pretty encouraging I mean I'm on a high I feel very very good the hotels were rammed it was very difficult to find a hotel room and what was great is that when you see there's a strong demand the prices will go up so hoteliers got really good rates as well for their accommodation during that period but it goes back to what we were saying if you spend 14 million on jazz and then you give your own culture one million dollars which was what obtained in the past then you're doing a disservice to your own people to your music industry and to your own heritage and so when we came in this is what we said this whole idea that we're importing all these other cultures and creating a deficit in terms of exporting our culture I think that that is wrong and it's bad policy and what we have decided to do is to make carnival be the biggest thing and we've always said we would need three years to do it and we've done it but part of that as well Ryan is also to ensure that we promote our music because what really drove the numbers it's got to be the guys in Dennery segment and Tennyson John and Ricky T and all of them that have been overseas and they have been promoting our music they've been working very hard and our support for them is in keeping with building the brand of Saint Lucia's music industry Saint Lucia's carnival however I will tell you that we need to do a better job in terms of sustaining this we need to do a better job we have to be deliberate at making this happen so it can't be because there's a music revolution in our country called the dennery segment that we will say yay and then we go flat so we've got to make sure that we are planning that we are building the product we're building the capacity of our artisans we've never been short of talent but what is apparent is that we've always been short of the business know-how of this industry I see people of lesser talent in the Caribbean and they are more prominent and their music business is more lucrative than ours that are more talented and so we've got to now get that part right the marketing of our music the contracting of artists the management of artists and it's something that I intend to do I mean I've been given the opportunity now to work with minister Belarus on the culture and creative industries and we're having those discussions to make sure that the plans are speedy and the plans are robust to ensure that we build that capacity in our music industry because I think it's been overlooked for many years as an economic development tool a lot of our youngsters would like to go into it but unless you have a number of bright stories to tell parents are going to discourage their children from ever partaking youngsters are not going to see this as a future and I think that for the entire industry we can do ourselves a tremendous good. Minister minister I sense your enthusiasm and your great interest what does this do now for government and the country as a whole having these numbers coming for for for the carnival celebration I'm sure it provides the opportunity now to expose St Lucia to all these persons who are coming in these extra arrivals persons coming from near and far to other aspects of St Lucia life I'm sure this is something that your ministry has looked at in terms of how can we tap on this platform that carnival is actually setting is it something that you are really looking at closely let's say maybe in terms of exposing other parts of St Lucia life maybe the rural communities even your your own village a tourism but you're speaking of how does that inspire you to go forward in those areas that inspires me when I when I I mean I I sit back and I do a very unscientific rating of what has happened in the last two years and if you had to pick a carnival in the world on momentum it would be St Lucia we're not we're treated that is but in terms of momentum in terms of pace of growth it's us and this is something that should inspire us this is something that we shouldn't waste but we should maximize the moment in times like these robin history you've got to make sure that it's a turning point in the development of your country that is transformational of people of an industry or anything this is an opportunity that we shouldn't allow to go begging and I intend to make sure that we do everything we can to create the coalition we need to create between our bands between our musicians government policy to create a right enabling environment tourism marketing strategy and airlift support so that we can ensure that we build a strong nexus not just between our culture and tourism but between our cultural industries and building of an economy out of that conversation we can't leave the more traditional festivals of the long wars that margarite a lot of people are wondering we've done so much of carnival what now can we do for these flower festivals to make them as appealing as carnival is lisa um when I did ishina creole in my constituency in the community called jack mill you know it very well I got six thousand dollars the committee got six thousand dollars and we had to raise all the rest in sponsorship because you had to get stage sound lights I mean put up the boots it's it's a nightmare to do it with six thousand e c dollars six thousand e c dollars could barely organize your birthday party but we give that to our communities and say there you go I am happy to tell you that now the allocation the last allocation I saw to ishina creole was six hundred thousand dollars and that is the level of investment and that is how serious we are about making sure that where they are cultural assets that you invest in them you build them you give them capacity and you make people feel proud for many years right we were in we were proud to say that we're bringing luther vanneros to sing on a stage and we're sterilizing the stage for luther vanneros and getting crazy about him as a country whilst all of these festivals you spoke of they were they were neglected and that's bad policy and this is the point is to make sure that any of these festivals that are solution that they are given the same level of treatment the same level of prestige as we do with those festivals that are far and so the cdf now under your ministry their task really is to deal with the talent because I think sometimes people get a little confused as to what is the role of the cdf right now is it strictly to do they want to put in putting on the events needs to be redefined in terms of you know in events in lucia and cdf and what is going to be each other's roles and I think we've got to properly define those better yes there there are some collision there and as far as I see that cdf's role is to work on the development side but I think in the absence of events in lucia cdf was the management company as well that did the events management for our festivities but now that is events in lucia I think it will take some time for this to be properly clarified so there's some overlapping and stepping on toes but I'm sure that they'll get it right roots and soul we're just a week or so away yeah from that happening um this year the lineup quite a concentration and making sure that it's a little more expanded than what it was last year and a number of local artists or say nushan artists let's put it this way because some of them are resident and non-resident so the thinking behind putting together this year's roots and soul how different did you want to make it from last year's um you know I I tend not to get too involved in the lineup I leave that to other people to do to be quite honest but I'll tell you that the feedback so far is very very good there's certainly a lot of um a lot of interest you know how when you as a politician how you know if something is going to score is when your constituents are asking you for tickets so I'm getting a lot of requests so I know that that's um very very um encouraging and I know that it's going to be a blast the feedback I'm getting from hotels suggest as well that bookings are are up and we're seeing a lot of people from martini coming through for it so it's beginning to grow as a cultural tourism event but again uh carnival and and juniors they have to be the focus you're in focus with us when we come back with our discussions with the minister for tourism we'll be looking at closely the crew sector and what are some of the numbers there what are some of the programs the government is instituting and how all of that can benefit you stay with us you're in focus the world's climate is changing and that affects all of us storms are becoming increasingly intense periods of intense drought and heavy rain stress farm animals and destroy our crops higher average ocean temperatures kill our coral reefs and change the migratory patterns of fish st lusia contributes only 0.0015 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but is doing its part along with countries around the world to reduce the emissions that are warming our world and changing our climate these efforts are called mitigation but decades of emissions have already changed the climate and the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today will increase average global temperatures even more we need to adapt that is do everything we can to prepare for and respond to the actual and expected negative effects of climate change and everyone has a role to play we need to protect our crops build homes that withstand storms and keep our drains and waterways free of garbage to help us recover or bounce back from climatic events learn more about the government of st lusia's national adaptation plan and the steps you can take to protect yourself and your fellow st lusians and welcome back you in focus with us is the minister for tourism honorable dominik fede before we went to break we were talking about the cruise sector we have seen an exponential growth particularly following the rehabilitation at point surfing so that both that was nearly done there that has added to the sort of appeal of the accommodation of those larger vessels coming into st lusia for your ministry now that we have some of the bigger vessels bigger numbers coming in what is the plan in being able to manage and sustain well i think we referenced some of it when we spoke about the overcrowdedness and some of our beaches and opening new beach facilities and ensuring as well that we are clear in terms of what we're doing opening your attractions as well to give the cruise passengers a lot more opportunities to go into different parts of the island it presents an opportunity as well for communities but it is to tell those communities that here are opportunities for you in the case of the some of the beaches we're opening up two of them are in ancillary one are in is in canneries and you know these are communities where the cruise vessels would drive past and you know they would leave the port and go on their way to so for it here are opportunities as well for marigold what is their offering and so on so i'm very optimistic about this season in terms of how we will manage the flow of cruise ship passengers and how we will better distribute them across our communities and decentralize that whole approach rather than having focused enclaves you will now have a situation whereby cruise passengers are going to be better distributed you've termed this year as the year for revenue yes for tourism so and you've also announced a cruise conversion program yes discuss for us how that what is it and how is that going to be beneficial to the ordinary man because the typical complaint is that person say i don't see the benefit of tourism i don't get it so how does the cruise conversion program allow for the ordinary person to understand and feel the impact of tourism because conversion program is mostly for hotels it's a big revenue generating program it certainly is going to generate a lot of jobs because if we get the kind of growth that we are envisioning then the hotels are going to have to hire more people then they're going to have to buy more supplies then they're going to need more of everything all of the inputs that they would consume locally so if you look at the cruise business it's the biggest advertisement to your country that's what it is unfortunately without a regional position or consensus you can't apply more taxes to get more money from cruise passengers what you must do is to use market forces to increase the yields of the destination so rather than complaining what you've got to say well the cruise lines and the cruise business is structured the way it is how can we milk more so we said that we've spoken about this as an industry for 20 years converting cruise passengers to longer stays so we will have a most dynamic sales center at Port Serafin where all of our hotels big and small will present an opportunity for cruise passengers to come back on a future stay but for a longer stay because the money is really in land based tourism so at the moment we've got two-thirds of the business coming from cruise and then just about a third from land based tourism you want your tourists to stay for as a long time as possible but the cruise passengers they're here for eight hours the boat is there at seven o'clock and by four it's gone so you've got to now say all right you've been in the tour you've sampled St Lucia but now really sink your teeth into St Lucia because it takes more than a day to really enjoy yourself and to see and to appreciate what St Lucia is about as a destination so this is what the program is about but we have the potential to generate you know tens of millions in sales and that is where the money is more government revenue as well this is a shop that's going to be appointed by the St Lucia tourism authority. Looking at what's available to the cruise passenger you have a specific program that's dealing with the sort of development of the vendors some training has already been done what more is happening with ensuring that once the cruise passengers perhaps going through the different communities you have the viewing points to get them excited about spending and that's the important thing the cruise spend. But I think a fundamental one is the training of the vendors because what it does it says to them this these are the set of products that are likely to sell one of the things that we do is we keep selling the same products and if in business and you are not buying my products then I can't complain I've got to then say well what do I sell if you're not interested in buying ice cream then maybe you want to buy sorbet so this really is to get the vendors to be better business people to understand merchandising sales product placement their procurement has got to be more authentic products we're also training the suppliers of craft as well to improve that side so there is a project on the way to train our craft vendors in in choselle so that the artisans the products that they're delivering to the market not just to the vendors but also to the hotels are going to be superior in quality but with one word at the center and that is authenticity and I think that once you do that you're likely to have increased sales because nowhere else in the world can I find this bag designed this way than St Lucia and that is what people buy uniqueness not the same thing that I can find in Puerto Rico or St Martin and you have to remember as well that we are far south and so it's to give that appreciation to all the people in the business that you've got to be different from the other ports you've got to be different from the other destinations because the cruise passenger would have been bombarded with a lot of the things that you've got how many t-shirts can they buy how many bead chains and bracelets can they buy so it is to make sure that we give direction to all of our stakeholders but fundamentally you've got to also improve the area around the port so the market should not just be a place of craft should be a place of culinary excellence yes it's a fresh produce area but no one is doing food in a way that you will take me to lunch and if you are not excited about going to the market for lunch why would the cruise passengers be and that's the fundamental thing because you're always here the visitors always ask you where can I eat like the locals that's what they say absolutely I want to do like the locals absolutely but it's got to be done with style and it's got to be done with class but it can be done locally and so you've got to know in gender there's just a global culinary standard that you've got to meet and we're training that side of it as well the reconstitution of the market has already began so that's going to improve the facelift the numbers are suggesting that while Saint Lucia has a very high disembarkation rate from the vessel some of our main lines are telling us that the the percentage of the time the boat is at port the the guests will come off but they would stay for a short period and get back on the boat because it means like there's anything that's holding their attention absolutely so it's it's now for us to improve upon the facade of castries to uplift castries to make it feel comfortable it's an eyesore at the moment our city center and the general area of the cruise port and we've we're now working with the world bank on the OECS tourism competitive project in the next three years we are going to be spending 40 million dollars to implement some of the projects that will uplift it so the William Peter Boulevard will be a pedestrianized area I know that the MP for central castries Serif Latbubra has been working with my ministry to make sure that we can implement that project but what it does if you pedestrianize the boulevard then restaurants can come into the streets and people can sit outdoors and watch locals as they walk by and and they they now intermingle and they they are now interwoven into what we're trying to do and that is the whole thing is to create the the kind of ambience where people are in a tropical city center and these are kind these are some of the conveniences these are some of the experiences that you would want coming into a tropical city center so that's one of the projects that I know that that's well on the way to being done and that's going to improve the length of time that people stay I must congratulate the mayor we've seen a significant reduction in the amount of burglaries against cruise passengers with the numbers suggest that it's action and yeah and that's because of the implementation of the city police so that has been a big improvement what I'm going to say though is that we've got to do a better job at implementing things a lot quicker this project that we're doing began since I was in the private sector so the report was done in 2013 we're now in 2018 and we're just implementing some of the steps but but the world would have changed a whole lot from then and if you're not implementing things in a timely fashion you're going to be left behind and so I'm concerned about that the implementation rate is extremely slow and we've got to do something to work a lot quicker to implement things this really is a question of the capacity the passion and enthusiasm of our civil service and we've got to be more productive do you see a place for the sort of showcasing of St Lucia's talents once we get that William Peter Boulevard pedestrianized and you create a sort of area within the city that the tourist could perhaps watch some plays um has live concerts do we see a place there for that sort of activity to hold the interest of I think I think we need to find a new job for you I think you need to come in the industry because that is exactly the kind of thing that people want to see when they come to a destination and that is to what's the place for culture you're absolutely right as part of the village tourism project one of the things that I am designing for ancillary is is a historic story but it will be told with carnival costumes so I can tell you the history of St Lucia with one of our festivals and to have that properly choreographed but here you have a big fusion between the culture and the history and it makes a very enchanting experience for an excursion and it really then differentiates from anything that exists and this is how you differentiate yourself as a destination by making sure that those aspects of your culture that are strong that you differentiate your the experiences that people can have in your destination with them so you're absolutely right Mr. Minister we want to give you the opportunity to go through as many aspects of as possible of the industry all right I need to keep my answer short yes before we take in the course within the next 10 minutes so we would like to look at um development of new sector concepts particularly we spoke a lot about it before but you want to go more in there because you know that the village tourism is something that's very important you also want to look at the Airbnb that you did mention earlier as well in more detail and some of the concerns of the hotel sector that you mentioned and maybe just a brief look at informational broadcasting so first of all the village tourism we know that there's something that's really going to have a lot of spin-offs because it will also encourage the whole aspect of focusing on the needs of the constituencies as well so but before we go into that we take another break when we come back we look at those areas thank you so very much you are in receipt of an abnormally high bill it is highly possible that you have a leak that leak may not always be visible before you contact wasco conduct a do-it-yourself test one record your meter reading two do not use water for 30 minutes to one hour three take another meter reading if the reading changes you have a leak contact a plumber to identify and fix the leak at the earliest a message brought to you by the water and sewage company incorporated wasco thanks for keeping the focus I mean it's a fairly we looked at just before the break the aspect of village tourism and the Airbnb situation can you comment much more on this and really expand apart from what you've told us previously yeah well I think that big opportunity is here for Saint Lucia nationals to be involved in the tourism sector you know various use of the capacity to find the high intensity intensity of capital that's required and so when you know you have the technical support with a management organization that is village tourism incorporated then it gives that kind of support and empower Saint Lucia's more than ever before to get involved a lot of local businesses for example don't know that they can get concessions just like the big hotels and it's been a bit of a concern for quite some time a chronic situation whereby they haven't had the ability to hire you know professionals that are sophisticated like lawyers and so on to advise them but now village tourism will be able to give that guidance that support to say before you build apply for concessions organize your taxes so that they can more effectively participate in tourism so this is what it's about the legislation is completed it's before cabinet I know it's going there on Monday to be tabled and we are doing the consultation right now and by November we should have the legislation pass which will then make the entity village tourism a legal entity and now we'll be able to go ahead recruit the employees and begin the process of setting up shop and so we have in each village or the chosen villages or areas rather grosally answer and so far but there are five additional the five of once as well they will be individually themed yes so can you speak to that do we so certainly I think that you can see that grosally it's carving out itself they are they the party village Ainsley Ray has carved out his niche to be the village that's going to focus on festivals and then as well you look at Sufria health and wellness is their thing with the south springs and the volcano and all of what's going on so naturally there is that experience it is still a working progress in terms of defining what shape the other villages will take in terms of their own development but this is the first phase we've looked at the assets and we've realized that in these three villages you have significant tourism products that you can already build on so hence the reason for choosing them okay we just want to remind so whilst the village tourism entities being set up we are putting in infrastructure as you see in the case of Sufria and grosally and answer it on a certain extent okay we just want to remind viewers that you can call in with your questions the telephone number is 4682162 and we're also taking your questions on facebook so feel free to send that in airbnb which would sort of be but it's already in existence and I suppose under the village tourism you'll have a more refining of what that offering will be because licensing will have to come into play the question I know that the hotel sector has been asking whether the airbnb's will be taxed and all of because to pay their fair share how are you balancing not really sort of stifling the airbnb sector with sub-sector which is really giving a livelihood to so many in the informed and informal way but at the same time ensuring that regulation is put in place because regulating it is important very important it sustains it it allows us to manage it properly and that is critical to the future of the livelihoods that are in place but I think that if the airbnb sector was taxed my argument to the hoteliers is that we will give them concessions as well just like you're allowed at present the law allows for people that are operating six rooms or more but we're going to have to look at that and address that to include all tourism providers because the landscape has changed significantly since 1998 when the legislation was written so those legislative changes are being considered and it's one of the things we've got to do in the short order to ensure that our airbnb sector the indigenous economy I call it is is able to participate but I must tell you Lisa that a lot of hotels are selling on airbnb as well so they found a way to coexist all right don't forget you can call us in here in focus the telephone number is 4682162 your questions for the tourism minister we want to bear into another aspect of your ministry and that's with information broadcasting there has been some public discussion on what's happening two years on since Radio St Lucia faced closure there has been some indication by yourself in that the move is towards having a national broadcasting network nice what stage are we at with that and what would be required to make it happen a lot has changed since Radio St Lucia was established it started as whips sometime in the 1970s it was a win-win island's broadcasting and then when the whips folded up it grew into Radio St Lucia and in those days the am frequency dominated but radio has changed a lot since then the media has changed a lot since then the consumption patterns of st lucians have changed a lot since then and so this whole question as to the relevance of a national broadcasting radio station whether it is relevant it it it really raises a very serious question and it you have to give it a lot of analysis Radio St Lucia it was millions of dollars in debt it couldn't pay the employees NIC contributions it couldn't pay its bills it owes a lot of its suppliers and when we come in we had to rescue a situation we had to pay the bills of the employees they are PAYE for example a number of years were outstanding to the IRD their NIC contribution for example a number of years were outstanding and it was just a messy situation that we had to get rid of the management of it and then you had the situation whereby I think taxpayers were being taken for a ride with Radio St Lucia it became a nests for political parties to put their cronies so whenever the government changed the personalities changed at Radio St Lucia as well and you know it became so bad prior to the last general elections where it was a campaigning tool where the previous administration used it to to carry a political message it had drifted so far from what it was originally intended to be a national broadcasting hub that would focus on issues of national development to being a political messenger for the government of the day and and that was untenable and we had to address that as well so hence the decision we allowed it to go into receivership it still is and I know that the receiver is trying to sell off the assets to see how best she can pay off a lot of the bills but we did right by the employees we actually met a lot of obligations to them more so than we had to do by law because we did appreciate that a number of them were working there for many many years now let me answer your question following that very long preamble there is a piece of legislation which I introduced very vaguely to the parliament and it's a broadcasting authority legislation and this was rather controversial it requires a lot more consultation with the local media you know very often when you try to add structure you are being accused of trying to muzzle the media if you ask me I believe that they ought to be a lot we need to manage the our media products a lot better I mean Facebook is out of control if I want to harm your reputation all I need to do is open 20 Facebook names and tomorrow your friends will begin to think of you you know quite differently as they do now so how are you going to regulate that is that fair to you I am the biggest proponent of freedom of speech look at me I'm very very vocal I love and to debate and I love the whole idea but I think as well that if I make a point that point must be substantiated with facts and I appreciate that with my rights in freedom of expression they come with certain responsibilities and those responsibilities ought not to collide with another person's rights I cannot just go ahead and say anything I want about you because I have the freedom to speak so yes there are some existing laws that cover libel and and so on but I think we need to go deeper in terms of making sure that we structure our media we manage the media sector a lot better than we do while we have this debate a number of our the country's the biggest proponents of freedom of speech they have broadcasting authorities that do exactly that the United States does the UK that created democracy well no sorry the the idea came from Greece the Greeks did but the United Kingdom saw the idea and made it global and and they have broadcasting authority that looks at how do you regulate media and so we cannot as a media and I speak not as a politician here but as a a former media practitioner and someone whose professional philosophy is embedded in media that's where I got my start it's my first job and so I have a deep personal interest in media to see it thrive to see the media go forward but is to make sure that we do this well it is too important the media the role that that you play is too critical to the development of our country to give people information that is fair and balanced and informed that is properly researched so the job of a journalist is of vital significance to the development of this country and so you cannot just go ahead and do things in a rush and you know I am the time has come now where we got to sit down with the media workers associates is there a media workers association and there is one there is there are certainly very quiet and I don't know what the activities are but we need to sit down and and discuss how do we go forward and you know these discussions have been happening even before I enter journalism it's been years and years and I've seen presidents come and go we're still where we are we have a question from Facebook and Jody wants to know we just spoke about the national broadcasting policy but also the freedom of information act and how can an independent reporter journalist one who's not attached to a media house gain equal opportunity for access as a media house worker and and perhaps through a government issued a press pass system well I think that we've been pretty liberal as a government we've been the more accessible we've come in and even in the worst of times even when we have been derided over matters or subjects of the day we have kept our weekly cabinet briefings where ministers are there and we are open sometimes I believe that perhaps we're too open and we're most transparent because we believe that you know democracy is strong when you are giving people information where you're giving them access and I think that if you check with the prime minister's senior communications person they call McDonald I'm sure that she would when she meets the credentials I'm sure that she would be able to gain access so anyone in discussion can get access to information but the idea of a freedom information act that has been some discussion for a while with persons feeling not just asking a minister but being able to access certain records and documents again let's sit down this is a very important discussion the media workers association and all the relevant stakeholders have got to come together what does the media workers association think about this what's their position what's what what you are in that business what is your association when you speak to your colleagues what do they think and you know they're certainly efforts are drafting bills but the media is largely suspicious of politicians whenever we try to come up with bills to improve the sector and it it becomes a difficult a difficult subject area to to to confront but you know my focus has been honestly on making sure that the government information service that you have the equipment that you are modernized you guys are doing a great job in terms of the introduction of new shows you've got your nightly news this show certainly is a very new product that you're doing and you're doing your best from a public sector standpoint to bring government to the people bring information to the people and this is a windfall moment for the democracy of st. Lucia and congratulations minister minister i'd really like to thank you for being on our program today and for giving us for the insight and a number of areas that you're responsible for and we're happy that members of the public have been able to get a bit closer to most of these issues that are relevant to them and i'm sure that there will be a lot clearer on the policies and the plans of government in relation particularly to tourism as we spoke about information and broadcasting and other areas that's developing within the concepts of tourism this has been in focus we're certainly happy that you're able to join us here at the government information service and the national television network and behalf of my co-host Lisa Joseph i'd like to thank the minister on about Dominic Vader once more we're hoping that you have a very pleasant day and join us next week when we go in focus