Four Jamaicans recently completed a successful familiarization tour to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada and have rated these Windward Islands as getaway spots that the rest of the world must see.
Making the trip were Eaton Hubbard of BWIA, Velma Francis of Compact Travel, Mellissa Campbell of Premier Travel and Flavius Laidley of Slowly Jamaica. {{more}}
The trip was arranged by Slowly Jamaica, a Jamaican based company promoting Caribbean Travel and Events. The main sponsors were BWIA West Indies Airways and LIAT Airlines, True Blue Bay Resorts and the Board of Tourism in Grenada, Roy’s Inn and Sailor Wilderness Tours in St. Vincent
The party left Jamaica on Sunday, June 19, for Grenada where they spent the next three days meeting hoteliers, proprietors and tourism representatives. They also used the opportunity to visit and inspect a number of beautiful sites before leaving for St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Wednesday, June 22, where they spent another three days following a similar routine.
The tour was organized to provide travel agents, tour operators and airline industry professionals an opportunity to experience, first hand, the tourism products in these islands.
The group was very impressed and pleasantly surprised with how well Grenada (the entire country) has recovered from the devastating of Hurricane Ivan. “The tourism sector seems to have a new gear, in fact the renovations of hotel have included improvements that will see them raising the bar to a new level,â Laidley said. His sentiment was echoed by the rest of the group who also commented on the efficiency of the Board of Tourism, the helpfulness of its members and the general friendliness of the Grenadian people.
“St. Vincent is a fascinating island. People make you feel at home. The general culture is close to that of Jamaica. The island is extremely beautiful and it’s unspoiled,” said Hubbard of mainland St. Vincent.
Describing the Grenadine isle of Bequia as one of the most beautiful islands he has ever visited in the Caribbean, Hubbard said: “Bequia is a world in its own world. Warm people, very quaint society and serenity indescribable and yet you have all the amenities what you expect from a developed society.”
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