By Robert A. Emmanuel
Minister of Tourism, Charles Fernandez said that a major challenge for the development of the tourism sector in the country is the cleanliness of the environment.
Speaking to Observer media on Monday, Fernandez, as he reflected on the largest visitor arrivals figures April in the last five years, remarked that “whenever we have a holiday weekend and we saw our people going to and enjoying the beach, the next day there is a lot of garbage left behind”.
He sought to advise the public, especially schoolchildren, that it was important to keep the country clean.
“I think the young people must understand it is not to keep Antigua clean for the visitors, but we need to keep Antigua clean for us.
“We have the nicest people in the world, the response we get [about] our stakeholders and taxi operators are very professional, our first line tourism employees are amongst the best … [and] our people are exemplary in terms of professionalism,” he said.
Meanwhile, with the annual summer festival just mere months away, Fernandez is hoping for a successful carnival season, saying that the tourism ministry is pursuing multiple avenues to boost tourist numbers.
“We are still in discussions with another airline to start operating by end of July; I met with them as recently as last week in Barbados and we are still pushing very hard. We are also speaking with Guadeloupe to see if they can allow for a ferry to bring more people from Guadeloupe and Martinique, we also spoke to Caribbean Airlines to see if we can put special flights on for Carnival weekend.
“So, we are doing everything we can to ensure that the airline is there for all who want to enjoy our carnival,” he revealed.