Yesterday afternoon in a well-known high street supermarket, a brief conversation with the cashier led to her telling me that she had visited St Lucia in 2017 and had loved it. It was a beautiful island and she would love to return.
I asked where she’d stayed, but she didn’t know, it was an all-inclusive resort and they hadn’t seen as much of the island as they would have liked. It’s true that resorts on the island do offer lots of opportunities to go on tours and trips, but to really see any place, you have to walk along the streets and talk to people.
All-inclusive resorts on the island have an impact on the local economy that is positive for a small number of well-known attractions and business, but which leaves much of the island untouched by the potential benefits of tourism.
Although Brexit is not (thankfully) a topic of conversation in St Lucia, the country is still feeling the effects of the UK joining the EU and the impact of EU policies on trade. Policies that decimated St Lucia’s banana exports to the UK – a major source of income. In place of banana’s is tourism which now provides St Lucia with a key source of income.
