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Million dollar marketing plan, Government Budget gives slight boost to TCI Tourist Board

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#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.

Magnetic Media is a Telly Award winning multi-media company specializing in creating compelling and socially uplifting TV and Radio broadcast programming as a means for advertising and public relations exposure for its clients.

Caribbean News

Millions to come from FSC 

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Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

 

 

#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Revenue from the Turks and Caicos’ Financial Services Sector will more than double in the next few years, if E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister gets his way.  It ‘s one of the reasons the country is investing so much capital into getting off of the EU blacklist and becoming a secure trustworthy financial destination. 

“The FSC’s revenues for 2020/21 was $10.5M— the figures for 2021/22, would be about similar,” he said.  He further explained that $10.5 million from the FSC represented about 2.6 percent of the country’s 408.5-million-dollar revenue.  Though it increased to $14 million in the 2021/22 financial year, finance is still a small fry compared to tourism or even stamp duties but that will change, says Saunders. 

“My revenue goal for the Government by the year 2029 [or] the election after the next election – is $500M.  By that time, I want the financial sector (FSC) revenues to represent at least 5% ($25M).  So that’s my goal for the financial sector by 2029.” 

This goal, should it be met, would increase the Government’s revenue by 100 million dollars, a significant increase in spending power for local upgrades and improvements for Turks and Caicos residents and visitors. 

Saunders says it’s time for the TCI to diversify its sources of revenue to make sure that what happened in the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw residents out of a job for months, will not happen again.  Tourism now makes up around 80 percent of the country’s GDP.  The Minister of Finance wants to push that down to 60 or even 50 percent.  

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Caribbean News

New ASHLEY’S LEARNING CENTRE CONCERT

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Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

 

 

#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Musicians from the New World Symphony will be in the Turks and Caicos in concert next month and residents are invited to attend in support of the future of Ashley’s Learning Center.

A fairly young orchestral academy based in Miami, the New World Symphony was launched in the 1980s by 1987, Michael Tilson Thomas and Ted Arison,Carnival Cruises founder.  From the 1500 applicants who vie for a spot each year, the symphony accepts around 35 music graduates annually for training fellowships. 

A select few of those graduates will be in country on April 8th headlining at the Ashley’s Learning Center concert ‘We’re all in this together’.  The concert which also feature local artistes will be held at Brayton Hall on Venetian Road from 6 pm to 8:30 pm

Tickets are available ON ISLEHELP  $75 PER GENERAL SEAT $125 PER PREMIUM SEAT $195 PER GALLERY SEAT – with /FREFRESHMENTS. 

For TICKET RESERVATIONs you can call: 649-341-2304 or email  EVENTS@ASHLEYSLEARNINGCENTER.ORG 

 

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Caribbean News

Women’s Health Connectivity and health a study for TCI’S benefit

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Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

 

 

#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – As the country moves toward new fiber optic connectivity, bridging the digital divide could be a game changer for healthcare and other family-friendly services in the TCI. 

The power of universal digital connectivity across countries was one of the recurring themes when the United Nations in partnership with the Network of Afro Caribbean Women and the Diaspora recently explored how technology, innovation and education are being used to address women’s health issues. 

The session aimed to highlight success stories and  explore how those processes can be replicated to help women and girls globally including in The Turks and Caicos.  

The UN explained that despite holding a 70 percent majority in healthcare jobs, women are poorly represented in leadership roles and subject to systemic gender inequalities that can make receiving healthcare challenging.

As delegates from Chile and Rwanda, who were also partners in the session, shared the upgrades to their countries’ systems that had significantly improved the level of care available to their women, digital connectivity was a deciding factor.

In Rwanda the health ministries have begun to use drones to deliver medicine, SMS messages to alert about health threats and a completely digitized health care that eliminates paper documents for pregnant women and makes records accessible to any doctor,  immediately. 

Rwandan delegate, Rose Rwabuhihi shared tips that countries should keep in mind when trying to implement new processes to benefit women and the wider community.

  • Partnership and sustainability are key factors to successful programs. She urged governments not to give up on projects or allow their partners to give up on them halfway.
  • Education campaigns to introduce residents to the technology: “We need to build skills and deepen the knowledge so they can use the innovations that have been put in place especially in rural areas.

Poor connectivity and technological issues have plagued the TCI for years especially in the islands outside of Providenciales.  Government has substantially acknowledged this disparity in communications services and is investing in a new undersea cable to augment services in the Turks and Caicos.

The UNs perspectives can now ignite a fire for even more family friendly, digital services.

In fact,Senator Yasna Provoste Campillay, the Chilean Delegate explained how connectivity and videoconferencing had been used to reach the county’s women in the most rural of areas. Chile is a long country, its landmass spread lengthwise creating unique communication challenges. While healthcare in Chile is separated by length the Turks and Caicos islands are disconnected by the ocean and solutions that prove useful for the South American country could well be worth implementing  locally. 

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