By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, February 11, 2023 – “The Turks and Caicos islands is considered by many visitors as the pièce de résistance of Caribbean tourism destinations,” said Premier Washington Misick acting as the keynote speaker in the annual meeting of the largest travel agency in the world on February 5th.

The agency, the Association of Travel Advisors (ASTA) made the Turks and Caicos their meeting grounds this week bringing in dozens of top travel agents including ASTA chapter Presidents and senior members and even ASTA President Zane Kirby, many of whom were seeing the country for the first time.

Misick took the opportunity to sell the Turks and Caicos destination and experience to the well-connected travel agents emphasizing the massive growth in the country’s share of the industry.

“The astounding statistics, from 12 percent to 22 percent in the Caribbean not only speaks to the beauty of the region but of the Turks and Caicos— the TCI came to the global tourism party late, referred to as the armpit of the Caribbean in the early 60s the TCI was labelled in 1979 by Gordon Butch Stewart as the last of the true exotics.”

He spoke of the “exquisite beaches hailed as among the best in the world, protected marine parks, living mangroves, idyllic cays, bird life and sunsets, an eclectic mix of local regional and international cuisine, cultural events like Middle Caicos Crab Fest, The South Caicos Regatta, Providenciales Fish Fry and Lobster Fest.”

The Premier made promises to the stakeholders about infrastructure upgrades to come all across the country including the airports. He also assured them of making direct linkages between visitors and the community.

During his speech, Misick doubled down on the government’s choice to dismantle the Tourist Board and put in a new Destination Marketing and Management Organization:

“Destination systems like other systems have a life cycle In the case of tourism destinations unless proactively managed it is susceptible to exploration involvement development consolidation and stagnation arriving at a final post-stagnation stage, My government is determined to avoid that fate, our aspiration is to create the most visitor-centric destination in the world – to meet these goals we are in the process of transitioning from a 33-year-old state driven entity to a public-private partnership.”

He encouraged them to keep the visitors coming with a commitment on behalf of TCI to keep the vacation standard high.

“We know that your customers have choices and options are constantly increasing, our brand promise to you is the commitment to being the go-to market for the high-end market in the Caribbean.”