Caribbean Tourism Minister Of The Year: Dominic Fedee
The Caribbean Travel Awards has designated Dominic Fedee as the Caribbean Tourism Minister of the Year.
In a citation it is noted that Minister Fedee has helped steward a destination that is ‘one of the hottest in the Caribbean’ and has become a haven for high-profile investment, from Cabot’s highly-anticipated gold resort at the northern tip of the island to a major new cruise destination in south.
That’s without mentioning an exemplary role as chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, doing an outstanding job as an ambassador for Caribbean tourism as a whole.
Minister Fedee expressed gratitude for the recognition. “I am just really humbled by the whole thing …and I just want to thank Caribbean Journal for recognizing the outstanding work my team has been doing and I think it’s testament of the work that an entire industry of people is doing,” he declared.
Fedee added: “All 20, 000 tourism and hospitality workers that’s their award, and I would like to dedicate it to them. Because they show up every day, they work hard and they are ones who meet the guests and they are the ones that ensure that Saint Lucia’s reputation is #1.”
The minister said there are several projects in the pipeline and some soon to come on-stream. He said the country has received approximately 1.2 million visitors per year from the different components of tourism.
“The goal is to get that to about 2.5 million and that is where we are trying to get …but most importantly is to yield as much as we can from the most profitable asset of the industry, which is the land-based island,” said Fedee.
He disclosed there are over 2,000 hotel rooms in the pipeline for development over the next seven (7) to ten years “and if this all comes through; it means that Saint Lucia would have some exciting brands. We are breaking ground soon on the Hyatt and we just broke ground on a new golf course and on Cabot Lodges as well, and we see a lot of developers planning for development.”