{"id":12051,"date":"2018-02-01T15:13:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=12051"},"modified":"2018-02-01T16:12:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T20:12:35","slug":"sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Lester laments “painful” stagnation in tourism sector"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Prime Minister Sir Lester Bird has lamented the decline in the country\u2019s tourism sector, saying that the sector appears to be suffering from inertia.<\/p>

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\u201cWe have not placed emphasis on the development of all the facets of the products particularly the accommodation sector,\u201d Sir Lester told debate on the 2018 budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sector has stagnated and declined,\u201d he told members of the Lower House.<\/p>

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Comparing Antigua to St. Lucia, the former tourism minister said, \u201cour tourism has taken a distant second place to St. Lucia.\u201d<\/p>

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He said figures from Castries indicate that the country not only welcomes more stayover visitors but has earned more annually for its economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur product has stagnated and suffers from inertia or destination fatigue. By this I mean almost every aspect of our sector has stagnated\u201d Bird said.<\/p>

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But he warned against the \u201cnegatives\u201d or mass tourism saying that its better to attract high spenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I suggest that the accommodation sector must be dominated by 4-5-star hotels.\u201d<\/p>

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Sir Lester suggested an accommodation capacity of 6000 rooms by 2025 and increase of 2500 rooms in the next seven years.<\/p>

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He also called for a tourism master plan \u201cwith a focus of identifying where these rooms will be constructed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bird has called for the establishment of at least five name brand hotels saying that he wants the government to own but not manage at least 1500 of the new rooms.<\/p>\n

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Former Prime Minister Sir Lester Bird has lamented the decline in the country\u2019s tourism sector, saying that the sector appears to be suffering from inertia. \u201cWe have not placed emphasis on the development of all the facets of the products particularly the accommodation sector,\u201d Sir Lester told debate on the 2018 budget. \u201cThis sector has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-2","category-news","category-tourism"],"yoast_head":"\nSir Lester laments "painful" stagnation in tourism sector - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sir Lester laments "painful" stagnation in tourism sector\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Prime Minister Sir Lester Bird has lamented the decline in the country\u2019s tourism sector, saying that the sector appears to be suffering from inertia. \u201cWe have not placed emphasis on the development of all the facets of the products particularly the accommodation sector,\u201d Sir Lester told debate on the 2018 budget. \u201cThis sector has […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Antigua News Room\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-01T19:13:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-01T20:12:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Sir-LesterBird.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"914\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\"},\"headline\":\"Sir Lester laments “painful” stagnation in tourism sector\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-01T19:13:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-01T20:12:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/\"},\"wordCount\":242,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:914\/h:514\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Sir-LesterBird.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"News\",\"Tourism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/sir-lester-laments-painful-stangnation-in-tourism-sector\/\",\"name\":\"Sir Lester laments \\\"painful\\\" stagnation in tourism sector - 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