St. Vincent & the Grenadines has been listed among the “World’s Best Diving & Resorts” in the Atlantic & the Caribbean. This is reported by the 2008 Edition of the “Sport Diver” Magazine. Other Caribbean islands making the list were the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Turks & Caicos and St. Eustatius. It is noted that St. Vincent & the Grenadines is the only OECS and Southern Caribbean Island destination to feature in this list.

Three hotel properties in St. Vincent & the Grenadines have been listed in the 2008 Annual Directory of The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd. The Raffles Resort in Canouan Island, The Cotton House in Mustique and the Petit St. Vincent Resort on Petit St. Vincent are the three properties bearing this prestigious title, with the last two making the list of “Leading Small Hotels of the World”. Of the 19 Caribbean countries to make the list, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was only matched in performance by Anguilla who also had 3 hotels making the list. Antigua, the Bahamas, Jamaica and St. Lucia also made the list.

A number of stakeholders here were involved in a planning exercise last week in relation to Homecoming 2009, the government strategy to have as many Vincentians who are abroad, return home for and during the year of the 30th anniversary of independence.

A Taiwan ecotourism research delegation, led by Mrs. Chiu-chin TIEN, parliamentarian and Chairperson of the Taiwan Sustainable Ecology Society, arrived in St. Vincent on Wednesday, April 9. The purpose of the visit is to explore and to promote “birding ecotourism” in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Once again St. Vincent & the Grenadines has featured on the Travel Channel’s list of the “World’s Best Millionaire Hangouts”. This time it is the Cotton House Resort on the Grenadines Island of Mustique which has captured the big-spenders’ heart. In the feature written by one Valerie Conners, the “What’s cool” factor about the resort is the “Pillow Menu, featuring five varieties of pillows for guests to choose from”.

The Travel Channel has declared 21 Beaches around the world as the “World’s sexiest Beaches”. According to a news article by Amy Marathe which is found on their website, they have “circled the globe to find the world’s best stretches of sand”.

On March 4th, four Canadians who live in Calgary, Alberta, docked their 60 foot yacht at Cumberland Bay. The home port of the French built yacht is Vancouver, British Columbia (on Canada’s Pacific coast). Owners Don and Fiona Horton, who live in Calgary, Alberta where the winter temperature routinely falls to the sub zero range, have been cruising the Caribbean from January to May for the past seven years. On this occasion, two friends from Calgary were vacationing with them.

As this country moves to further develop the tourism sector, local hotel and tour operators have been encouraged to develop promotional packages. This was the premise coming out of a one day workshop, Wednesday, to look at destination enhancement. Minister of Tourism, Youth and Sport Glen Beache said that this country needed to find creative ways in its promotions, even as he referred to the fact that inclusive packages have become the (accepted) strategy used by other Caribbean territories.

This country will be forming a partnership with regional airline Liat, aimed at promoting tourism. Minister of Tourism, Youth and Sport Glen Beache made the announcement at a press conference, Tuesday 26th February. According to the Minister, Liat will be offering packages to travellers from throughout the region to this country. Beache said that Trinidad, Barbados, Grenada, and St Lucia were some of the region’s markets identified for upcoming promotion packages to St. Vincent.

The Harmonites are part of a dying breed of entertainers throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Caribbean region. An acoustically based sound which features natural sounding instruments, in their case, steel cups played by Elmondo Shoy (leader), cuatro and banjo played by Eardley Adams, maracas/percussion – Whitfield Mitchell, bass pan by Afrie Charles, with another banjo played by Leopold Edwards, rounding out for that unique Caribbean sound.