RAISING THE FAMILY ISLANDS’ PROFILE

There can be few more enjoyable occupations on a Saturday morning than strolling along Grand Turk’s Front Street, past some of the exquisite old buildings like the wonderfully named “Ebenezer” 7th Day Adventist Church and the 19th century home which now houses the national museum. These great reminders of Grand Turk’s history are all set against a  turquoise blue sea like nowhere else, and a beach to die for.
The other Saturday about 25 of us  assembled  to mark Earth Day with a clean up of Front Street. It didn’t take more than 90 minutes to gather between us about sixty large bags of garbage, all collected within a radius  of about a mile and along the side of the street and the beach. Imagine how much more we could have collected with just double the volunteers!
Perhaps the organisers next year need help to promote the clean up, as I met residents of Grand Turk subsequently who didn’t know about it. The  numbers for a clean up in Providenciales were certainly more, including no less than 40 members of the Cadet Corps.
The need for clean ups are certainly not unique to Turks and Caicos: the local park in England where I jog is often littered with beer cans and food wrappers at the weekend after teenagers’ nights out, and the wonderful beaches of the Philippines and India can be hair-raisingly full of plastic garbage.
Despite the ongoing need to keep our islands clean – which requires far more than one off events like Earth Day – it is a fantastic achievement that Providenciales has been named Trip Advisor’s Number One Island Destination – not just in the Caribbean but globally! Like many others have said, we should bask in the glory, and do everything we can to keep that spot, including getting the roads and paths to the stunning Grace Bay beach far cleaner than they are.
But I also believe that we all – Government, opposition, the Tourist Board, the Hotel and Tourism Association – should be doing much more than we are to promote Grand Turk and our other great Family Island destinations. I’ve been doing my little bit, by for example encouraging some of the most senior private investors in Providenciales, who in some cases are heads of global corporations, to come over to Grand Turk for a day to see its charms. I urged the head of the IMF delegation this month to taste Grand Turk’s great diving opportunities. I was delighted that an Indian visitor I knew opted to have a week crashing out in North Caicos, rather than the obligatory week in a condo on Grace Bay.
It’s astonishing how many long term expatriate residents of Providenciales alone I meet who have still not taken the 25 minute plane ride to see the nations’s capital. Word of mouth can do so much to encourage more visitors.
So I hope that we will all do more to put the family islands on the map. I look forward to visiting all of them for the third or fourth time in the next few weeks, not only to catch up with friends and colleagues and the local schools there but also to talk about how we can raise  their profile, and the wonderful destinations they are. I see no reason why the Tourist Board shouldn’t be aiming to get Grand Turk, or one of the other islands, in Trip Advisors Top Ten Island destinations!