St Lucia: Minister Hilaire shares his first travel journey after 18 months

St Lucia: Minister of Tourism Dr Ernest Hilaire shared his first 8,675 miles travel journey after 18 months, calling it "Another step to returning to normalcy.

His Facebook post read: This week was another step to returning to normal life. I took my first overseas trip in over 18 months! The world is surely returning to normalcy, defying the suppression of the COVID pandemic. Monday was travel day with a route of over 8,675 miles. Not much has changed and sleeping on flights remain a challenge. At least I got to catch up on movies. It is quite noteworthy that I left Saint Lucia on Monday and arrived at my hotel on Wednesday morning, with almost half of the week lost due to travelling.

The rest of the week was an intense schedule of meetings with traditional and CIP potential investors. We need to get our message across that Saint Lucia is open for good and serious business. More importantly, we need to pursue our vision to promote the greater participation of our people in the development process and wherever possible to facilitate increase ownership or partnership in any development.

The week ended with photo ops and interviews promoting Saint Lucia. As a destination (yes I know some of us do not like that word, but it is an industry word), we are known globally as a leader in the weddings and honeymoon market. We must be thankful to all stakeholders who have worked hard in the past to build the quality product that we have. With greater partnership, we will strive to become even better.

Notwithstanding the achievements of the week, I missed being present for two big announcements in Saint Lucia. Firstly, the announcement by the Government of the National Housing Programme valued at US$10m!!! This will be a social programme that can add tremendous value to the quality of living of so many Saint Lucians. Talk about putting people first.

Secondly, the announcement that 5000 households will be receiving FlOW broadband, fixed line and cable television service at only $20.00 monthly!!! So many children will now have access to the internet for home schooling. Again this will significantly improve the quality of life of so many households and help bridge the inequality gap. I can't wait to get involved in the rolling out and implementation of these two programmes in my constituency.

It has been less than 100 days since elected but surely in these difficult times, we have kept our promise to start putting the people of Saint Lucia first.