20 Apr Interview with Charles Fernandez, Minister of Tourism and Investment, Antigua and Barbuda
You have been recently awarded by the Caribbean Travel Awards as the Caribbean Minister of Tourism of the year. This was because you handled the pandemic so well, setting up strict protocols and putting safety at the heart of the travelling industry. How would you summarize Antigua and Barbuda’s role at handling the pandemic and the protocols put in place to resume travelling?
Antigua and Barbuda is very dependent on tourism, arguably more dependent on tourism than any other country in the region. As a result of that, it was very important for us to ensure that we were able to bounce back quickly and safely. One of the things we did in lockdown: we got together and started to strategize, realizing that we had to rebound in a safe manner quickly. The first step we took was get the cabinet to agree to sign an infectious disease specialist—a medical practitioner—to the Ministry of Tourism. The rationale was that we wanted to ensure that when we put the protocols in place, we would be able to hand the document to the Ministry of Health and they would be able to just look it over and answer any questions we would have. That kind of expertise allowed us to have a seamless relationship and leaven nothing to be lost in translation. At that point in time, even though the Ministry of Health concentrated mainly on the disease itself, we had to go beyond that, to see what we could put in place to keep our visitors and our own people safe. To that end, we brought this infectious disease specialist into the Ministry of Tourism, to work on protocols with us. We worked with him to ensure that visitors can come and at the same time ensure that certain precautions and protocols are in place.
We opened our borders first in the region, on the 1st of June 2020. We were successful because we had several other islands calling us, asking us how we were doing, what were our protocols and we were quite happy to share this information with them. We are part of the Caribbean, and when you sell, quite often you not only look at one island in the Caribbean, you look at the entire Caribbean.
We were very fortunate for that. In terms of handling the pandemic, the statistics are there. The first six months of operation, we had very low cases. We had a spike and that was caused, we realize in hindsight, by our own people coming home, going into communities, taking their mask off and moving around. That is what created the spike. Unfortunately, whenever there is a spike, you have to have a lockdown to keep it under control. That, in turn, affects our tourism product because there are restrictions on your tours and so on. And people that have come in, especially to the Caribbean, want to know that they can go out on tours, they don’t want to be locked into a hotel like a concentration camp; they want to be able to move around, they want to be able to experience the culture, experience the country, experience the people. And so, that affected us.
Going on from there, we have managed also to have the highest rate of vaccination in the region. That is something that is very important because, when the airlines are coming, we have put in place now that you have to be fully vaccinated to come into Antigua. If you are going to be fully vaccinated, those people that are coming are saying, If I have to be fully vaccinated, what is the rate of vaccination on your island? We are past 60 percent of the entire population being vaccinated, which for us is pretty good.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit particularly hard the whole travel and hospitality industry, especially in Antigua and Barbuda. I wanted to see if there were any changes in the tourism product offering in the aftermath of the pandemic. Are you planning to introduce any other tourism products that the pandemic has initiated?
The government put in place incentives so, even though the place was on lockdown, there were incentives offered to property owners in the tourism sector or tour operators who wanted to improve on their product. We would incentivize them and give them tax breaks. As a result of that, a number of our hotels spent millions of dollars upgrading and improving. Some of it was important because, of course, you had to put shields up in front of your people at the front as a means of protection for the workers. We were able to see that the product, apart from being safer, was upgraded.
It is important to note that, although we came out of the pandemic and everybody suffered in some form, our product, by and large, benefited from the incentives. Most of the hotels have a fresh new look and they have new furnishings, because they took the opportunity of the tax breaks to really improve on it. At the same time, of course, this ensured employment within the construction industry during this difficult time.
What are the competitive advantages of Antigua and Barbuda as a travel destination compared to other islands in the region or in general?
Antigua’s main advantage is its people. In my opinion, and it may sound biased, but we have the nicest people and that is our greatest asset, that’s number one. Number two, and as a result of that, we have the lowest crime rate in the region. That is very important. You can feel safe coming to Antigua.
Of course, beyond that, we have our culture, our cuisine is unique, we have a UNESCO World Heritage site, Nelson’s Dockyard, and we have also a number of other forts that we are now looking to develop and hopefully put under the UNESCO umbrella. We have the best beaches, and on a every day of the year we can find another one for you. We have two islands: Antigua and Barbuda. You can either come to Antigua or you can go to Barbuda.
We’re doing very well in terms of sports tourism. We have a number of sporting activities in Antigua. Cricket, for example is very big for us. Next year in 2022, we will be hosting the semifinals and finals of the Male 20/20 World Cup Under 19 games. Yachting is very important for us as well. We have the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge coming sometime in January — they sail over 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in a row boat from La Gomera to Antigua. We also have the RORC, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, out of the UK — Antigua is the base for that and that happens the first week of January. We have the big boat show, which are the large yachts coming in December. All of these are ramping back up at a time when in other parts of Europe and the world, which would be competing with us, are not yet fully open. So, we are looking forward to a very exciting season. We have easily the largest yachting regatta in the Caribbean on the last week of April, going into May. We have boats from all over the world coming to Antigua to race, and that is a staple of our tourism product. We also have kite surfing, which is becoming very popular in Antigua, and we’re looking to introduce a kite surfing week. Cricket also: the UK is visiting Antigua; England is touring the Caribbean and they’ll be in Antigua next year. Antigua is the only island that has two certified cricket grounds. We also have a track and field that is also certified to international standards. We also have two international golf courses, one in Barbuda that is going to be among the best in the region. And in Antigua we have another golf course that is being upgraded presently. By and large, we think that, apart from just coming to Antigua and Barbuda for the sea and sun, there is also fun in sporting.
I wanted to touch on the Dubai Expo. Our readers are people from the Middle East, from the GCC region. What do you expect from Dubai Expo 2020 and how do you foresee to attract travelers and investors from the Middle East region? I read that you are also looking to re-engage the Emirates for direct flights to Antigua and Barbuda.
There’s an old saying: you have to be in it to win it. The point about it is that, not just Antigua and Barbuda, but the Caribbean has to be on the show, because if you’re going to have potentially 20 million visitors passing through, we have to show them what the Caribbean is. Hopefully that will also create a market to drive the airlines in the UAE and the Middle East, to bring passengers here, because it will be a new source market for all of us.
It is very important to put us on the map. It is a great opportunity to expose us to those 20 million visitors, many of whom would not have been able to understand what Antigua is about. They can understand that we actually have a beautiful country, beautiful surrounding water, a large ocean footprint with two islands, and we have so much to offer to anyone who wants to come and experience Antigua and Barbuda. So, I think it is very important. I can tell you that we have already started to get inquiries in terms of investment opportunities. The feedback has been quite good, and then we will be able to move from this to continue now at a new level, reengage Emirates and have all these people passing through. There has been a tremendous amount of interest.
Is there something that you wanted to communicate that I didn’t cover?
Antigua is coming out of the pandemic. The country is very much pro-investment. We depend on foreign direct investment, just like every other country in the world. Antigua is in a unique position. We have international flights from all over the world. In the peak season, we have between 12 and 15 flights out of the UK. We have maybe about 6 flights out of Canada; we have various markets in the US, with lots of flights daily from New York, Newark, Miami, Charlotte. We also introduced a new airline and flight out of Orlando starting Saturday the 4th of December. We have the best international airport in the region. We are also going to be having the newest cruise port — we have already started construction on it, and in another 18 months we will have the best, newest, most modern cruise port in the region. We have also just completed our cargo port. What that is saying is that we are strategically located to be a hub for the Caribbean. We also have our own regional carrier. If you spend a week or two or three in the Caribbean, it is very easy when your aircraft drops you here, to get a feeder aircraft to take you to one of the other smaller islands that may not be able to take a jet. And again, that is what is important for us, to create that whole idea of being a hub. That is why the ports are very important for us. We also have an airport that is going to be completed in our sister isle, Barbuda. Again, we wanted our two islands to have airports that can handle jets.
This is also what Minister Green mentioned as well, that he wants to see Antigua and Barbuda as the Dubai of Caribbean.
That’s the Prime Minister’s vision.
Exactly! It’s a perfect theme for the report as well. I just wanted to ask you about the Nomad Digital Residence Visa. This is also a new program that you initiated. And I wanted to see if you could share some comments on that initiative.
It is a new initiative. There are a lot of folks still working from home, and we have had people that are coming into Antigua now and saying, rather than staying in the cold, in my room and looking out this dreary scene, I can come to Antigua, I can lie down on my porch with the sea lapping there and do whatever I have to do by zoom or by answering my emails and doing my work. I won’t have to worry about being depressed and cold.
It is a great opportunity. The government is also presently investing a tremendous amount to upgrade our internet facility throughout the island. That is the key thing, to have affordable internet connection that works. Now we have our Airbnb’s up to a standard, then you don’t even have to stay in a hotel, you can stay in a small cottage and Antigua is very safe. Everything is there for you. It really is a unique opportunity for someone: rather than being locked away in an apartment with the heater on, coming down to the Caribbean and lying in the beautiful sun with the trade winds blowing and the waves lapping on the shore, and after they finish their meeting, they can take a dip in the sea and come back and start another meeting. It is a wonderful opportunity.
I just wanted to touch briefly on your very important portfolio of investment as well. What investments are you trying to attract to Antigua and Barbuda? Where do you see the potential for synergies or collaborations? What type of investors would you like to attract and in which areas do you see an investment that will be beneficial to Antigua and Barbuda’s economy?
We have a tremendous amount of investment now in our cruise tourism port. That is about $85 million. We have also a couple of hotels that have been on the drawing board. Unfortunately, Covid knocked back everything and everything was put on hold and people couldn’t travel as they wanted to; they couldn’t get their technical people on the island. That has been a challenge. We are now ramping it back up as our protocols are more relaxed and more of our people are vaccinated. Clearly the hotel industry is number one in terms of investment. We are also looking into medical tourism, the cannabis industry and the stem cell industry. In terms of the sports aspect of it, we are open to look at the possibility of upgrading stadiums or adding sporting facilities to Antigua and Barbuda.
Another aspect that is becoming quite popular in the Caribbean is the whole aspect of the medical schools. We have a couple of them on the island and we are open to drive an investment in this even more. We have a number of students that come as a result of the fact that Antigua is the safest island in the Caribbean, so you can invest in a medical facility here to train students in medicine. As a result of that, we benefit because they buy from the supermarkets, from the restaurants, they rent cars, rent homes and apartments and invariably they spend on the island.
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