TCI News
Long Bay High senior wins Spelling Bee; second time around a charm for Michaella
#Providenciales, June 5, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – B E A U C O U P was the winning word at the National High School Spelling Bee which went to 17 intense rounds where all 330 words in the study list were exhausted, and the home of the Hawks, Long Bay High School, could not be more thrilled with the performance of Champion Speller, Michaella Achille.
“The competition was good, but I was a little nervous at the beginning but after a while, I got confident,” 14-year old Michaella agreed that she has a good support system. “They encourage me along the way.”
The Ministry of Education Spelling Bee returned this year after a hiatus as a result of the hurricanes and the students were ready. Education Minister Karen Malcolm opened the event held at the Gus Lightbourne Gym and she was there when Michaella was presented her prizes.
“The importance of having a competition year after year is designed to increase the students vocabulary and just for them to have a competition for them to enjoy and to just express themselves in words.” Turning to the 2019 Champion, Minister Malcolm continued with: This young lady (Machaella Achille) was phenomenal today and I am proud of her, I wish her all the best in her future endeavors, this is her last year at Long Bay, she is moving on to Clement Howell and I expect nothing but the best out of you going forward. So, God bless you and congratulations.”
Eleven students representing schools across the country were sharply dressed and gave stand out showing in the 2019 staging of the Spelling Bee, which was started in 1998.
“Today was really exciting, we had eleven schools which participated and I was just so excited that the students were able to spell of the words that were in the spelling booklet that was provided to them an shortly thereafter they had words which they didn’t get and they did an excellent job.
Michaella’s coach and Spanish teacher at LBHS, Beverly Reid admitted that Michaella was determined to better her performance in this second showing and pushed for the practices which had been happening for months ahead of the competition.
“Michaella is a very, very excited speller. More enthused and more motivated sometimes than I. If I say 3 o’clock, she is there and she has always been going the last mile and Michaella exhausted the words in the very first week of spelling (practice). He did excellently well, she encouraged me a whole lot and I find her to be a very, very, very brilliant girl. I am excited to see that she won today.”
Vice Principal of Long Bay High, Kordell Campbell-Forbes said the students representing the schools of British West Indies Collegiate, International School, Marjorie Basden High, Providenciales Middle School, Raymond Gardiner High, TCIPS Comprehensive High, HJ Robinson High, Maranatha Academy, Precious Treasures and Wesley Methodist School showed true grit.
It was a stiff competition, it was one that took much grit and I am telling you when I saw that she (Michaella) was hanging in there after 17 rounds, I remembered when she entered the competition tow years ago when she was a first runner up, I whispered to her that ‘we’re gonna get them the next time’ and Michaella truly, truly demonstrated that today. We are blessed to have some of the brightest minds in the Turks and Caicos Islands and it was definitely seen at the competition and I must thank the organisers for a job well done, the coaches from every school, they prepared their students well to represent.”
Michaella Achille, who is the top student in her class, was proudly supported by an enthusiastic of schoolmates and her mother; among her prizes was an I-Pad.
Sponsors of the 2019 Ministry of Education Spelling Bee were listed as Lew1 Shipping, Caicos Dreams Tours, FLOW, Royal Jewels, Baci Ristorante and Island Vibes Tours.
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Almost two million visitors recorded in 2025
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS – The Turks and Caicos Islands saw an increase in stayover arrivals in December, seven percent higher than the corresponding period in 2024.
Preliminary data suggests that stay over arrivals by air for the month of December was 66,427 in comparison to 62,610 in December 2024.
From January to December 2025, preliminary visitor arrival numbers totalled 640,754; on par with the number recorded for the same period of 2024.
Stay Over Arrivals YTD December 2024/2025
The first quarter of the calendar year attracted the largest number of arrivals with visitor arrivals three percent higher than the first quarter of 2024. Reduced airlift from the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably the Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue services, was however felt from the second quarter (April to June). As a result, visitor arrivals dropped three percent in the second quarter.
By the third quarter of this year (July to September), geopolitical and economic conditions in the key source markets, namely the United States, led to further contraction of arrivals. In the last quarter of 2025, arrivals were impacted in October due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa but additional airlift from the USA and Canada resulted in an increase in arrivals in November and December.
Mr. Paul Pennicook, Interim CEO Consultant of Experience Turks and Caicos, said December’s increase in stayover arrivals is an encouraging indicator of the sustained interest in the Turks and Caicos Islands as a premier destination.
“While we note and continue to monitor geopolitical shifts that affect us, Experience Turks and Caicos is focused on increasing marketing initiatives in our primary source markets. We have spent the last two years investing in groundwork such as crucial travel advisor training to assist them in selling the destination more effectively. In the next fiscal, we will be building on those initiatives with co-op activities with partners as well as out of home advertising to increase visitation to our destination,” he said.
In Cruise, the preliminary count of passenger arrivals for the month of December 2025 was 129,346, a 22 percent increase over last December. This growth follows the berthing of 11 additional ships in Grand Turk this month.
From January to December, the cruise sector continued to outperform the same period last year, as the 1.3 million total cruise passengers recorded, marks a five percent Year-on-Year increase. 
The cruise sector experienced significant growth in the first quarter of 2025, with passenger arrivals surpassing last quarter by 53 percent. In the second and third quarter however, several cruise lines adjusted their itineraries as vessels were pulled from the fleet or from the Caribbean region, which resulted in fewer passengers.
Arrivals dropped seven percent and 10 percent in the second and third quarters, respectively. Double digit growth was recorded in the last two months of Quarter 4. This growth however, was not sufficient to outweigh the drop in arrivals experienced in October, following the cancellation of cruise calls due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Despite the late-quarter rebound, arrivals for the final quarter of 2025 closed six percent below the same period in 2024.
News
The Department of Trade, Industry & Fair Competition to Host Export Readiness Workshop Under the theme “Empowering TCI Businesses for Local Growth and Global Markets.”
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Wednesday, 11 February 2026: The Informal Settlements Unit (ISU) coordinated a multi-agency enforcement operation on Thursday, 29 January 2026, led by the Planning Department, with support from the Crown Land
Unit, the Turks and Caicos Islands Border Force, and security provided by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. The operation, carried out at three different locations in Providenciales, formed part of ongoing government efforts to address unauthorised development and illegal occupation of land in accordance with governing legislation.
The operation commenced in Blue Hills, where five Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on unauthorised structures identified on Block and Parcel 60502/48.
Enforcement activity then moved to a second location off the Leeward Highway near Caicos Lodge, where six Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on additional unauthorised structures on Block and Parcel 60802/66.
The final phase of the operation took place in The Bight, where three unauthorised structures were removed, with all debris cleared from the site in keeping with established safety and environmental protocols.
The Informal Settlements Unit remains committed to working alongside its partner agencies to support lawful development, protect public and private land, and ensure that planning regulations are enforced in a coordinated and transparent manner across the Turks and Caicos Islands. Similar joint operations will continue as part of the Government’s wider strategy to address unauthorised development and informal settlement activity.
