by Brian Major
Last updated: 12:30 AM ET, Tue May 10, 2022
Caribbean destinations and tourism stakeholders are joyfully welcoming the return of a multitude of buoyant cultural festivals, each focused on the distinctive music, cuisine, dance and arts attached to the panoply of regional nations.
Largely freed from bans on large outdoor gatherings driven by two years of pandemic-imposed restrictions, several countries are preparing for the resumption of events, from the Anguilla Culinary Experience to Barbados' Crop Over, the British Virgin Islands' Food Fete, Grenada's Chocolate Festival, Nevis' Mango and Food Festival, the Saint Kitts Music Festival, regattas in Carriacou and Saint Barth, Saint Lucia's long-running Jazz and Arts Festival, plus New Year's and Carnival celebrations in the Bahamas and Saint Lucia.
Their return follows the launch of the first comprehensive, centralized resource for information on the region's numerous events. Veteran Caribbean tourism and travel marketer Nerdin St. Rose first launched Caribbean Events in 2018 and has fully resumed the site as nations and suppliers resume tourism activity in the outbreak's wake. We spoke recently with Nerdin to learn how she created a timely resource for diverse events across the region.
TP: What led you to create the website?
NS: I'm so passionate about Caribbean events because my background comes from events. I worked with great event productions; I was involved with the Jazz Festival in the 1990's so you know I love events. I've created a platform where people can [access] all of the events taking place in the Caribbean. We sort of want them to stop thinking only about sun sand and sea but also about the other things they can enjoy and experience.
TP: You launched your company just before the pandemic outbreak. How did you deal with the impact?
NS: Yes, you know for me like for all of us it was hard to deal with. But it gave me time to reflect as well. I kind of got my life back because when COVID happened I was in hospital undergoing major surgery.
TP: What did you do during and in the aftermath of your treatment?
NS: I used that time to think about it what I wanted to do. Events had shut down, but by August of 2020 I was thinking 'OK, well maybe we could start planning for events in 2021.' It was a lot of 'let's wait and see.'
TP: How do you describe the site?
[The site] features all of the key Caribbean events with information, dates, descriptions and photos. We [publicize] the events through our own social channels as well, promoting the site as a place people can find easily as soon as they do a search for Caribbean events. I've been reaching out to the different destinations to ensure they keep us in the loop when they're getting ready to announce events.
I'm also reaching out to some regional airlines to promote Caribbean Events [including] links on their websites. We're looking at [event] ticketing and adding accommodation options highlighting hotels in and around events. The site is going to get better later in the year as we add more events.
TP: What are your short-term initiatives?
NS: We're adding events now and I'm reaching out to all of the islands as they release the information, which we added to the website. I continue to do work we're ramping up through 2022. Suppliers don't have to pay for their events to be listed on our site; we're sort of an aggregator. We were picking up just prior to the pandemic and actually started getting a lot more momentum and interest. We were promoting and have over 200 events on the site.
TP: It had to be difficult to deal with the dual challenges of personal health concerns and the pandemic, which impacted everyone. How has your experience affected your business outlook?
NS: Hey [those things] happened. During the pandemic, events were not happening, but we tried to keep people thinking about events although there wasn't a whole lot of content. It's just so good to see events coming back. It makes you feel even more positive and more encouraged and I'm excited about that.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
