#GrandTurk, Turks and Caicos Islands – Wednesday July 11, 2018 – Just under $1 million will be spent on marketing and promotions through the TCI Tourist Board announced Premier Sharlene Robinson, who on Tuesday presented her Government’s fiscal plan in the 2018-2019 Budget Communication. 
An over two hour speech was delivered on Tuesday afternoon at the House of Assembly in Grand Turk, in a sitting which was historically carried on live video stream on the newly launched HOA website.
The Tourist Board was identified as being a hard working entity, with need of resources to capture and build on visitors to the territory, which is home to the World’s #1 Beach, #GraceBayBeach.
Premier and Finance Minister Robinson said, “We all know Mr. Speaker, that tourism is the lifeblood of our economy; and we are satisfied that the tourist board is doing a lot of work to properly position the Turks and Caicos in the travel marketplace.
TCI Tourist Board Director: Ramon Andrews and US Region Marketing Manager: Pamela Ewing at Virtuoso NYC
We have an experienced team of professionals at the board; and we have a Minister who has come from that background with a wealth of experience to help guide the further development of the industry.
This year we will forward 3.3 million dollars to help in its operations. A third of that will go to marketing and promotions, as we seek to improve the number of visitor arrivals.”
Tourism arrivals for the Turks and Caicos were down for 2017, as reported by the Turks and Caicos Weekly Newspaper; the source was identified as the TCI Tourist Board. An excerpt from an article in February this year explains:
“In 2017, 1,243,843 visitors came to the Turks and Caicos Islands by both land and sea. When compared to 2016’s arrivals of 1,300,575, this is a four percent decrease for 2017.”
The four percent decrease is attributed to the sharp dip in arrivals in the aftermath of back to back encounters with historic hurricanes Irma and Maria; both slamming the Turks and Caicos Islands in September 2017.
The information within the news story points to an increase in arrivals for August 2017 by 14 percent; a drop in September 2017 by a whopping 94 percent; another major decrease was recorded in October 2017 with 46,135 less guests to the country, a 67 percent drop when compared to the year before and November 2017 saw another double digit decline at 12 percent fewer tourists than the previous year.
Hon Ralph Higgs, Minister of Tourism
The Premier explained that, “We are not only seeking to consolidate our traditional markers, but also looking to expand into new areas. The core of our market will always be the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom; but there are opportunities in South America, other parts of Europe and Asia that we can better position ourselves to exploit.”
Stronger spending will come in marketing the destination on social media.
“Increasing spend on the use of social media must be an integrate part of marketing this destination. And we must engage partners in that regard.”
The $3.3 million represents a slight increase for the TCI Tourist Board in this fiscal year.
