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There’s one thing travelers prize more than anything right now: authenticity.
They want experiences, they want culture, they want food. They want trips rooted in memory-making, not in packaged cliches.
They want a hike up the rainforested foothills of a volcano. To have lunch on vibrant vegetables that were grown a few feet away. They want to feel centuries of history, to find new hues of green.
But it has to be organic, it has to be delivered truly.
And that’s precisely what you get on the island of St Kitts, one of the most exciting destinations in the Caribbean right now.
“Our destination is real,” St Kitts Tourism Authority CEO Kelly Fontenelle tells Caribbean Journal. “That’s what the island offers when you come to St Kits. You have the real thing.”
Fontenelle, who has helped lead the destination to new heights since taking the position two years ago, mentions a recent meal at an eatery called Alfredo’s.
“It was a meal like what my grandmother would create,” she says. “In St Kitts, we still have that.”
But what you discover on the island is a transcendent kind of offering, one where authenticity is the beginning, but adventure is the main event.
You have the volcano. The zip line. Black sand. Gold sand. White sand. An historic train line, a locally-made aged rum. An abundant wellness offering.
“We have so much to offer,” she says.
Pound for pound, it’s as diverse a product as you’ll encounter anywhere in the Caribbean, one where travelers can get real, palpable optionality: the rare destination that flexes to meet its guest, whether you’re a couple looking for a week of massages and romantic drives to a family looking for a traditional beach vacation.
The goal, is to carve out a place as one of the hemisphere’s authentic, sustainable destinations, one that grows year round.
Beyond the peak seasons, that means a growing calendar of events that keeps visitors coming back month after month, something that, in June, the island does better than just about anyone with the now-legendary St Kitts Music Festival.
It also means pushing further into wellness, and other niche markets that attract visitors in the months that fall outside of the traditional winter wheelhouse.
St Kitts has also found serious success as arguably the number one cruise destination in the Eastern Caribbean, with a cruise terminal project “that is going to be state of the art.”
The island, which has a growing network of airlift to Robert L Bradshaw International Airport, is also looking to develop routes from emerging source markets like Baltimore, for example.
Under Fontenelle’s leadership, the island has also made a major foray into the travel trade, launching its popular SKY program for travel advisors and, this upcoming weekend, hosting the ASTA Caribbean Showcase for the first time ever.
But it also means growth that has an impact on the whole community.
“We have to ensure that the growth impacts our taxi drivers, our tour guides, our farmers, our vendors,” she says. “We want to be central to our sustainable island state.”
“We want to expand, we want to build, but we don’t want to lose what makes us unique for the destination.”
The post St Kitts is the Caribbean Island Where Authenticity Still Comes Naturally: “Our Destination Is Real” appeared first on Caribbean Journal.
