{"id":7271,"date":"2017-09-14T14:02:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T18:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2017-09-14T14:02:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T18:02:29","slug":"hughes-calls-for-duty-free-zones-in-st-johns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/hughes-calls-for-duty-free-zones-in-st-johns\/","title":{"rendered":"Hughes calls for duty-free zones in St John\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An opposition senator is suggesting that tourism officials consider making certain parts of St John\u2019s a duty-free zone.<\/p>

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Chester Hughes is asking the government to seize the opportunity to attract more visitors since the duty- free port of St Maarten has been destroyed by Hurricane Irma.<\/p>\n

At present, Heritage Quay is the only duty-free shopping complex in St John\u2019s.<\/p>

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Hughes said the country can develop a six-month plan to woo tourists and increase revenue intake in the tourism sector.<\/p>

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\u201cOpen St John\u2019s to duty-free, let us make St John\u2019s a duty-free port and let us decide where the duty-free section begins. You make St John\u2019s, if it is from East Street to the harbour, make it all a duty-free port, make the tourist boats start to come here as a first stop,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

He said if the country does not start that vigorous campaign \u201cto say that we accept you as a tourist\u201d Antigua and Barbuda will lose out because when St Maarten and the other islands rebuild, they are coming back with ultra-modern products.<\/p>

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\u201cIf we miss the opportunity as a tourism country, I say woe be onto us because the marketing must start now, the tourism marketing must start now that Antigua is open for business, that is what we should be doing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The United Progressive Party (UPP) senator noted that in every crisis, opportunities can be created which, if missed, creates a serious problem for the country.<\/p>

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Hughes urged the tourism minister to make every effort to seek to bring those cancelled\u001b vacations from the hurricane-ravaged islands here.<\/p>

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An opposition senator is suggesting that tourism officials consider making certain parts of St John\u2019s a duty-free zone. Chester Hughes is asking the government to seize the opportunity to attract more visitors since the duty- free port of St Maarten has been destroyed by Hurricane Irma. At present, Heritage Quay is the only duty-free shopping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-2","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHughes calls for duty-free zones in St John\u2019s - 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\/hughes-calls-for-duty-free-zones-in-st-johns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hughes calls for duty-free zones in St John\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An opposition senator is suggesting that tourism officials consider making certain parts of St John\u2019s a duty-free zone. Chester Hughes is asking the government to seize the opportunity to attract more visitors since the duty- free port of St Maarten has been destroyed by Hurricane Irma. 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