Cruise

When a cruise liner docks in Port Castries, you cannot fail to spot it to arrive A perfect way

A perfect way of arriving in Saint Lucia is by cruise ship. Or at least that is what more than three quarters of a million people did in 2018, up from 669,217 in 2017 and 587,053 the year before. In fact, arriving by liner is the preferred method of the majority of Saint Lucia’s 1.2 million annual visitors. This number has risen sharply since the opening of the Pointe Seraphine Berth One expansion in 2018 following an $18.8 million investment by the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority, SLASPA. This means that the port is now suitable for Genesis and Oasis class vessels.

Shortly after the official opening the port was visited by Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas, which has a passenger capacity of 5,000.

The expansion, which included the installation of three dolphins, means that Port Castries can now accommodate up to five ships simultaneously, including liners up to 305 metres in length. Ships typically arrive between 6am and 10am and depart between 4pm and 6pm.

Other cruise ships that visited in 2019 include P&O Cruises’ 3,648- passenger flagship Britannia, NCL’s 2,340 capacity Norwegian Dawn and Carnival’s 2,056 capacity Fascination.

ALL ARE WELCOME

1-758-452-8350 info@stluciayachtclub.com www.stluciayachtclub.com

Some ships visit year round although the main season runs from November to June.

A feasibility study is currently underway to consider relocating freight activity away from the city centre to a new port. This could allow more cruise lines to consider using Castries for homeporting, when itineraries start and finish in Saint Lucia. This could have the advantage of allowing cruise visitors to fly in to Hewanorra International Airport and then spend a few days on the island before heading off on a Caribbean cruise.

Shop ‘till you drop Most cruise visitors take time to stop off at the Pointe Seraphine Duty Free Complex when they come ashore. The centre offers range of dutyfree purchases for visitors. Diamonds International (www.diamondsinternational. com) is the largest loose diamond and diamond jewellery duty free centre in the region and sells a first class selection of loose diamonds and mounted Crown of light, Hearts on Fire and Forevermark Diamonds (from 0.1ct to 10ct) in addition to sapphires, emeralds, rubies and Safi

This is what P&O already does with its 14-night Eastern Caribbean cruise which does a two-week loop on Britannia from Castries, taking in St Kitts, St Maarten, Antigua, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, Grenada and St Vincent.

Chair of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Travel Association (SLHTA), Karolin Troubetskoy, says, “The cruise industry plays an important part for Saint Lucia’s tourism industry and for many of our SLHTA members. With a growing number of cruise visitors arriving on island, there have been challenges when

Kilima Tanzanite. The retailer also offers a wide selection of watches from Jaeger Le Coultre, Hublot, Bremont, Dior, TW Steel, Longines, Bulgari, Bulova and Movado.

Harry Edwards Jewelers (www.harryedwardsjewelers. com) is the official Rolex stockist in Saint Lucia and also offers brands such as Cartier, Breitling, Omega, Chopard and PANDORA. Other retailers include resort-wear shops Rainbow Trail and Crazy Al’s Beach Shack and The Rum Shop.

The complex is open Monday to Friday 9:00am – 4:30pm, Saturdays 9:00am – 2:00pm and Sundays 9:00am – 4:30pm (when there is a ship in port). See www.pointeseraphine.lc for a full store directory.

it comes to over usage of various beaches and marine areas. As an industry, we want to assure that both our stay over visitors and cruise visitors have a memorable time when visiting the island so that great efforts are being made to identify and create locations along the west coast that would welcome and host cruise visitors especially, thereby reducing the number of cruise visitors in other areas that are already busy with stay over guests.” For information visit www.slaspa.com

Flyinghigh

Green light for project that will modernise Saint Lucia’s gateway

Tourism plays a vitally important role for Saint Lucia and the country has bold plans to boost tourism in the coming years – a target of doubling the number of hotel rooms over the next three years for example.

Yet building new hotels is only part of the story – you need to get people to Saint Lucia in the first place.

The country’s key international gateway is Hewanorra International Airport (airport code UVF), at the southern tip of the island in Vieux Fort. The airport already welcomes some 700,000 passengers every year on a range of scheduled airlines: British Airways several times a week from Gatwick, American Airlines from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Charlotte and Miami, JetBlue from Boston and New York, United from Chicago O’Hare and from Toronto, Air Canada, West Jet and Sunwing fly regular services. There are also charter flights from the UK and Germany on TUI and Condor.

The airport is already able to handle a wide range of modern aircraft but it has been recognised for the best part of two decades that Hewanorra needs to be reimagined for the rest of the 21st century and it finally seems that this will happen.

A much-discussed plan to expand the

airport to offer modern facilties for a projected million passengers a year is now moving forward after a deal was reached to fund the expansion.

The US$175 million, 30-year project includes: • Construction of a new 337,000 square foot terminal building designed to handle up to a million passengers; • Construction of a new air traffic control tower (elevating over 100ft) • Construction of an additional parking apron with five passenger loading bridges and one hard-standing position • Resurfacing of the runway and taxiways • New road infrastructure and a better traffic management system.

Announcing the agreement to expand the airport Prime Minister Allen Chastanet said, “Among other vital considerations, the potential of Saint Lucia’s economic growth and development hinge fundamentally on an international airport. We are not going to bring old habits to a new village. We have to completely modernize our services at the airport to meet with our largest industry.”

The new terminal will be built further from the runway than the existing terminal, allowing the upgrade work to go ahead without disrupting ongoing operations.

“The new infrastructure will enable us to meet the aspirations of the airport services quality rating ACI, allowing us to compete with confidence with industry players at both regional and international levels and meet the expectations of our airline partners and passengers,” says Gasper George, Senior Manager - Business Development and Corporate Communications at the Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA).

The airport upgrade is to be funded through a US$100 million loan guarantee from the Government of Saint Lucia, financed by the Republic of China on Taiwan, with the remaining US$75 million financed by SLAPA through a consortium of local banks. The finance will be paid for through an airport development charge.

In February 2019, SLASPA announced that CBRE | Heery would be the architect for the project.

The company has already carried out projects at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Miami International Airport and Luis Munoz

Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

SLASPA and CBRE | Heery have been working together for more than a decade on the previous planning and design stages of the HIA Project.

Fernando Gavarrete, Miami Office Managing Director for CBRE | Heery said of the announcement, “It is an absolute pleasure to be entrusted with delivering the new hub which will be the Hewanorra International Airport. We understand the unique aspects of this project and we are excited to continue our working relationship with the very knowledgeable staff of SLASPA during this important design and construction stage.”

The inspiration for the new terminal is Saint Lucia’s national tree, the calabash. The main building will have support columns that reflect the branches of the calabash tree, while the middle of the building will feature a live, miniature rainforest.

The new-look airport will have a light, airy feel with arrivals and departures will be on two different levels: the check-in hall will be fully air conditioned while departures will have more comfortable seating, charging stations and increased duty-free and food and beverage options. The terminal will have a state-of-theart passport control and an expanded security facility, making journeys through the terminal much quicker than at present.

The redeveloped airport will also have improved private jet facilities.

In July 2019, SLASPA announced the signing of an agreement to set up a Fixed Base Operation at the airport with IAM Jet Centre Group which also provides premium services to corporate aircraft in Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada and Tortola.

IAM Jet Centre chairman Paul Worrell said, “IAM Jet Centre Saint Lucia is very pleased to team up with SLASPA and the local tourism industry to create a remarkable experience for travellers arriving and departing. We are particularly pleased that our timing coincides with the commencement of works towards a new modern commercial terminal facility. The two projects will take Saint Lucia tourism to a whole new level.”

The key parts of the expansion are expected to be delivered with in a time period of just 30 months. To learn more visit www.hiaproject.com

The Royal Saint Lucia Turf Club is just one of the many major investments in the country Why the world is racing to invest in Saint Lucia

Since the turn of the millennium, foreign investors have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Saint Lucia and the pipeline of funds for projects shows no sign of being turned off any time soon.

There are many reasons that investors choose Saint Lucia – a stable economy and supportive political climate, a strong history of protecting investments and an efficient regulatory environment are just a few of those.

Roderick Cherry heads up Invest Saint Lucia, the country’s official investment

Artist’s impression of the Pearl of the Caribbean project

promotion agency.

Cherry has more than 25 years’ experience in management and marketing, much of it in the telecoms industry, and is a former CEO of the Saint Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association (SLHTA) and the National Insurance Property Development & Management Company (NIPRO).

The big inward investment story is tourism, says Cherry.

“At the time I came from the SHLTA, there was a lot of buzz about expansion. The Royalton was just opening. It is a good story and it continues to be. We have 4,000 hotel rooms in Saint Lucia, and we have an ambitious plan of reaching 10,000 rooms in the next three to four years. It is ambitious but achievable,” he says.

To achieve this potential, Cherry says that the country needs to use the name of Saint Lucia as a holiday destination to “change the minds of investors that it is an investment opportunity as well”. To make the most of this potential development, Saint Lucia must play its own part in developing supporting

To download a guide to doing business in Saint Lucia and to find out more about the investment opportunities, visit www.investstlucia.com