Opportunities Available in Tourism, Says Minister Grant
(ZIZ News) – The island’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Lindsay Grant is encouraging nationals to take advantage of many opportunities available in the tourism sector.
Speaking during last week’s edition of “Working for You” on ZIZ Radio, Minister Grant said there is need for more language translators in St. Kitts.
“There is need for translators in Spanish, need for translators in French, but believe it or not we are in need of German translators, we’re in need of persons who can translate in Italian,” the Minister said.
“So, that is also now an avenue for persons who can speak the language to come forth to the Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism to say look ‘these are the services that I can offer’, because we probably need some at Port Zante and we can point you to various institutions that need them. So this is absolutely necessary,” he added.
He said as St. Kitts and Nevis’ tourism product expands, it’s important that students broaden their interest in other languages.
“It’s also a call for people and persons who are in the learning institutes now, not only just to focus your attention on Spanish and French but now start to branch out to the other various disciplines, including mandarin because that also maybe in the next five years is going to be a market that is going to be absolutely required,” he added.
The Tourism Minister noted that there is also an urgent need for more unique tourism-oriented activities that will encourage visitors to spend more money.
“The cruise lines have been complaining, and what have been their complaint? Their complaint is there are not enough things to do in St. Kitts by way of activities. What does that mean? It means people who are sitting down on the side of the road, who are doing other things, need to start thinking outside the box and say ‘what can I go into that will attract cruise passengers to come to me as a business?’ So we need to do things to get more money out of the cruise visitors,” Minister Grant continued.