After Three Years of Dormancy.
THE Southern Tourism Development Corporation (STDC) has announced its Board of Directors for the 2015 – 2016 period elected at the Annual General Meeting held last week.
The newly elected Board comprises nine members: President, Dr. Anderson Reynolds of Jako Productions; Vice President, Mr. Julius James of Vyé-Fo – MouvmanAnsanm; Secretary, Ms. Kristin Tobierre of True Value; Treasurer, Mr.TedburtTheobalds of Theobalds& Associates; Immediate Past President, Wayne Harrow of Wayne Harrow Chambers; floor members─Mr. Dylan Tobierre of Southern Taxi Association, Mr.Slyvanus Davis of St. Lucia Marine Terminals, and Mr. Vincent Clarke of Savanne Stables, and a representative of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries to be announced at a later date.
Founded in 1998, STDC is a membership driven, non-profit, private organization where the members are required to pay annual membership fees and each year to elect a new board from among their ranks.
STDC’s mission is to stimulate and coordinate the development of tourism in the south of St. Lucia, stretching from Dennery to Choiseul.
In this role, STDC has provided training workshops in food preparation, hospitality services, First Aid, and tour guiding; fostered the establishment and enhancement of heritage tourism sites; implemented educational programmes in schools; conducted tree planting and cleaning campaigns to protect and enhance the environment; promoted stakeholders’ businesses and tourism in the south through brochures, posters, and its website; and helped stage such cultural and entertainment events as Vieux Fort Jazz, Reef Kitesurfing Fiesta, JounenKwéyòl Festivals, horse racing, and international food fairs.
However, over the past three years the organization had become dormant and inactive, seemingly unable to successfully hold AGMs and appointing new Boards of Directors, thereby leaving the Ministry of Tourism without a partner to implement its tourism policy for Vieux Fort and the South.
Last year, to hold discussions on Vieux Fort’s tourism product, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries, in the absence of a functioning STDC, reached out to Mr. Julius James of Vyé-Fo – MouvmanAnsanm who had recently participated in a heritage tourism workshop in Jamaica, to put together a committee to begin conceptualizing the tourism product in Vieux Fort.
After several discursive meetings with the Ministry of Tourism, the committee evolved into the Vieux Fort Tourism Development Group (VFTDG) with the goal of spearheading tourism and economic development in Vieux Fort.
In its first year of existence the VFTDG had, among other things, pursued and championed the establishment of a marina in Vieux Fort, engaged stakeholders in the restoration and preservation of Pointe Sable Beach, held a tourism symposium on the development of a Vieux Fort tourism product, held a training workshop on the crafting and packaging of heritage tourism tours, and the group is now in the process of establishing heritage tours in Vieux Fort.
However, recognizing the important role STDC can play in the touristic and economic development in the South and the many missed opportunities of not having a viable and functioning STDC, and considering the redundancy of having two organizations—The Vieux Fort Tourism Development Group and STDC—operating in the same space and playing roughly the same roles, the VFTDG was encouraged by the Prime Minister, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and the President of STDC to join forces with STDC, help get it back on its feet to continue fulfilling its mandate of coordinating the development and advancement of touristic activities in the south of St. Lucia.
The AGM held last week, at which the new STDC Board was elected, was a result of the coming together of STDC and the Vieux Fort Tourism Development Group. The newly strengthened and energized STDC is now in a much better position to implement government tourism policy, to engage corporate, NGO and government organizations, and to help foster touristic and economic development in the South of the island.