Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 12, 2017 (SKNIS): The hosting of Exercise Tradewinds 2018 will see over 500 participants visiting the shores of St. Kitts and Nevis. This is good for the tourism sector and by and large the economy, says Captain Kayode Sutton of the St. Kitts and Nevis Defense Force (SKNDF), who is the chair of the local organizing committee for the event.
“They are going to be in hotels; they are going to eat; they are going to drink; they are going to be renting cars; they are going to be associating with the members of the society,” said Captain Sutton, speaking on Wednesday’s, April 11th edition of “Working for You.” He commented that this is noteworthy as a number of persons who visited in 2015 for that year’s Exercise Tradewinds are coming back.
“One of the individuals who is a member of the U.S Coast Guard has been here a few times,” he explained. “I call him the mayor because he practically knows everyone in St. Kitts and he knows his way around.”
Captain Sutton said that local businesses are going to benefit from the event. He added that a lot of money will be injected into the economy.
“They are going to eat at The Strip. All of them know Cathy’s on The Strip. They all rush there and they flood out Cathy’s and every other business,” he said. “They go to Vibes, they go to Patsy’s, they go to Buddies and they actually come into town and visit the Food Court.”
The captain added that stores that sell souvenirs on the island are also going to be benefiting.
“I recently got an email from a gentleman in Canada who’s going to be coming,” mentioned Captain Sutton, who said that at one of the planned conferences he asked him to get him some rum. “I got him a case of rum and I had to go in with that case of rum to Colorado Springs. He has already told me that he is going to be back here and his wife is already putting him on the alert that he has to bring back some vanilla rum. That is the infiltration into the society that we don’t see, but it does happen because every planned conference that we go on I am almost overweight with rum. When these guys come back, when they come down for any of the conferences, they stock up. They go to all the rum shops and they buy up.”
Claricia Langley-Stevens, Deputy Chair of The Local Organizing Committee with responsibility for Human Disaster Response Management (HDRM), who also appeared on the show, said that participants will also be engaged in community based activities. There will also be a Rest and Relaxation day where they will be able to explore historical sites in both St. Kitts and Nevis.
“We try to make sure that there is that tourism based component. We do not leave that out,” said Mrs. Langley-Stevens.
