Winner of the Week: St. Lucia

Winner of the Week goes to St. Lucia’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation – Senator Allen Chastanet. A longtime champion of growth for the island, predating his current role, Chastanet has often been criticized by his overly ambitious take on tourism. Recently named the Caribbean Travel Personality of the Year, Chastanet was given the top honor at the 2009 World Travel Awards in London, England.

"It's with great humility that I accept this award on behalf of the Government and people of Saint Lucia," said the Senator, saluting his fellow Saint Lucian nationals for their commitment to excellence across the hospitality industry.

St. Lucia also made their presence known at the prestigious awards by taking home the title for the Caribbean's and World's Leading Honeymoon Destination. Additional acknowledgments went to Sandals Resorts for the Caribbean's Leading Hotel Brand and the World's Leading All-Inclusive Company. The Caribbean's Leading Spa Resort went to The Body Holiday LeSport.

Dedicated to making St. Lucia stand out as a prime travel location, Chastanet – who is credited with bringing the popular Saint Lucia Jazz festival to the island-spoke to the St. Lucia Star about St. Lucia’s strategy moving forward.

“The critical component of is that we have actually created a master plan so the first part is to create a land use plan, find out where all the conflicts are. That’s why we have a economic plan that is substantiated by a fairly hefty document, which is like a 25-year vision for St Lucia. Whether everything is completed that is something to be determined, but we know clearly over the next three years specifically what we want to do.”

Citing key tourism driven investments that have recently sprouted up on the island or are to come, like the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Raffles and Praslin, the Senator points to the change in the desires of tourists.

“What we are now seeing developing in St Lucia is a new market spurred by a new type of tourism development where developers come in; develop the properties and selling them off as real estate. So that basically the investment is shared among a variety of people rather than one single person..”

Chastanet’s honor of being named Caribbean Travel Personality of the Year comes after years in the tourism industry. Appointed as St. Lucia’s Director of Tourism in 1990s, he held Sales and Marketing positions with Windjammer Landing in St. Lucia, Island Outpost and Air Jamaica for eight years. In 2003 he returned to St. Lucia to open Coco Resorts in Rodney Bay Village. Since 2006 Chastanet has acted as Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Congratulations to Ocean Splash’s! Winner of the Week -Senator Allen Chastanet- for his commitment to his native island of St. Lucia.