TCI News
Turks and Caicos National Museum Gala – Theme: Building for the future, to protect the past.
#Providenciales, June 12, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – In the presence of the Hon. Premier of the Turks & Caicos Islands, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, Hon. Derek Taylor and Hon. Mike Eman, former Prime Minister of Aruba, The Turks & Caicos Islands National Museum Foundation (TCNMF) held its sold out inaugural gala at the beautiful Shore Club, sponsored by Stan Hartling and the Hartling group, to launch the fund raising campaign for the new national museum on Provo.
The gala was a resounding success and incredibly raised over $200,000 from this event alone! With funds coming from ticket sales, event sponsorship, advertising, silent auction, sale of engraved pavers and donations; with an unbelievably generous $100,000 alone coming from Martin & Donna Seim, Son of the original museum founder and board director respectively, to name the main gallery in honor of the late Nils and Grethe Seim.
MC for the night was Dr. Hugh Fulford, President of the TCI Community College and Board Director of TCNMF. Hugh kept everyone entertained and managed to extract additional funds from many!
The Hon. Premier made an impassioned speech about the importance of historical and cultural preservation and her governments support for the national museum, including a budgeted $50,000 in this year’s budget, increasing to $100,000 thereafter. The Hon. Premier also introduced the guest of honor and her old friend, Mike Eman, who she received the Chairmanship of OCTA from in February 2017.
Hon. Mike Eman traveled from Aruba to support the event, along with his wife Doina Eman and spoke about the importance of economic growth and increasing our capacity for luxury tourism, as they have done in Aruba, but also to ensure that education, housing, health and general well-being of our citizens is an intrinsic part of that growth and to take lessons from the past, particularly in relation to the sense of family, belonging and community. He also touched on the similar pre-Columbian history and architectural elements found on Aruba, at the other end of the Caribbean.
Award winning architect, Ron Shaw walked everyone through the new building design with an audio-visual presentation and spoke of the architectural elements throughout the island that inspired his incredible vision for the new national museum building and the ability to expand for future requirements without issue and to the energy efficiency of the building and the ability to utilize renewable energy.
Dr. Michael Pateman, Director of the TCNM spoke passionately about his vision for the future of the new museum, and how it should of course be informative and reflect the amazingly diverse history of the Turks & Caicos Islands, but that it will also be fun and entertaining; also what the museum will exhibit, with a real emphasis on the people of the islands and on embracing new technologies to appeal to a younger and wider tech savvy audience.
A truly delicious Dinner was prepared by the Shore Club’s Executive Chef Martin Davies and his team, which was served by The Clement Howell High School Tourism Club, who did an incredible job, as they pleasantly and efficiently served the entire gathering in record time; beaming with pride throughout the entire process. Future tourism professionals one and all!
During Dinner TCI cultural legend David Bowen and Friends stunned the entire audience with an incredible and unique cultural show that was especially put together for the gala with dancing, singing and storytelling about family, fishing, bush medicine and times past, with the beautiful voice of TCI songbird, Barbara Johnson.
TCNMF Board members, Hon. Derek Taylor, Dr. Don Keith and Mr. Thomas Saunders all received long service awards for their incredible 27 years of volunteering on the board of Directors, since the museums inception, and were presented with plaques made from the last 3 pieces of oak left over from the Grandfather Clock in the national museum and executive pens made from hurricane damaged trees from the museum garden on Grand Turk, to make a real connection to the museum. The awards were presented by the Hon. Premier.
A vote of thanks was given by Séamus Day, President of the TCNMF, acknowledging the sense of community that brought everyone together for the event and thanked the TCI Government, and all the incredible companies and individuals, that made the event possible, particularly the Hartling Group: The Shore Club, The Palms & The Sands, Mr. Ron Shaw, Karen Whitt, Martin Davies, Graceway, Jackson Family Wines, Ministry of Tourism, Gilley’s Enterprises, TCBC, TCHTA, Ritz Carlton, Amanyara, Parrot Cay, TC Collection, Grace Bay Resorts & Gracebay Foundation, Beaches, Wymara, Ocean Club, Fortis TCI, Turks Head Brewery, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Sotheby’s, Clearwater Capital, ERA Coralie Properties, The Agency, Intercaribbean Airways, Olympic Construction Ltd., Projectech, Spa Tropique, High Point Resort Orlando, Grace Bay Car Rentals and Grace Bay Paint & Supply. Additionally, the TCNMF team of professionals and volunteers, with special mention to Vanessa Pateman for her design work on the commemorative booklet and banners and the Krieble Foundation for all their incredible support spanning over a decade.
The silent auction raised an additional $5,500 and a huge thank you to all that donated.
The museum also launched their campaign to raise funds through the sale of laser etched bricks and pavers, so if you would like to have a brick engraved with the name of a loved one or your company and logo, please get in touch by calling our Director, Dr Pateman on 649 232 4535 or visit the museums website: www.tcmuseum.org or email info@tcmuseum.org
These will be laid out on the main walkway to the new museum building, a wall of honor and the museum cultural and heritage gardens.
Other fund-raising initiatives include the naming rights to the new national museum building, galleries and gardens, so again, if you would like to support the national museum, please contact us to discuss partnering with The Turks & Caicos National Museum.
TCNMF is a registered not for profit organization aimed at recording, interpreting, preserving and celebrating the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands and its people.
Release: TCI Museum
Photo Credit: Sean Brady
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.
