Category: Press/Articles

The Gros-Islet City Council handed out awards to four groups that submitted projects for the Best Community Project/ Pli Belle KominKonpetisyon competition on Thursday, September 17.

Mayor of Gros-Islet Alison King who delivered the feature address congratulated the winners of the competition and encouraged them to continue to promote safe and clean environment in their respective communities.

King said that the competition was launched in commemoration of Earth Day 2015 and was aimed at getting communities involved in making their living spaces cleaner and more resilient to natural hazards.

Community groups from across the entire constituency of Gros -Islet were targeted.

“While the council shares responsibility with central government for maintaining public spaces within our communities, we sought through this initiative, to encourage communities to take a greater interest in and responsibility for community spaces, and to improve their aesthetics, utility, safety and/or performance, in support of the council’s own work,” King said.

But more than that, King said the competition has the potential to provide the council with a keener insight into community priorities as perceived by communities themselves, and to identify and support community-driven projects that may be eligible for third party funding.

The competition looked at several initiatives which include: clean up and upgrade schools, community spaces and facilities; cultivate flowers or other crops on a communal basis; stabilize slopes and improve community drainage; improve waste management; improve community safety; and to improve historical buildings and other sites of cultural or historical interest, whether publicly or privately owned.

Proposed categories for prizes were: most improved space (greening), most improved building, most improved school, most sustainable project, greatest improvement in public health and safety, greatest community participation and greatest youth participation, among several others.

The competition ran for 4 months. Despite making the competition criteria as wide, the Gros-Islet City Council only received 4 submissions. King admitted to some level of disappointment with the amount of interest shown, particularly from communities beyond the town of Gros-Islet.

However, she said this could be attributed to low levels of participation in CBO and NGO movements within the constituency of Gros Islet, difficulty accessing land to implement some of the ideas developed by communities, limited resources and the timing of the competition at the end of the school year, and into the school holiday period.

“Hopefully, the successes of today will stimulate more community interest and participation in future competitions. Although the number of submissions we got was low, we have to follow this observation quickly by noting that the quality of projects submitted, was without exception, very high, and demonstrate what it is possible to achieve when communities come together to achieve a common goal,” King added.

The competition received financial and material support from: the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, LUCELEC, Taj Weekes, Dannion CE, the Department of Forestry, Rayneau Construction and Industrial Products, Ace Hardware, Carasco and Son, and Amarna Consult Ltd.

The council said it hopes the competition will become a regular feature of the town’s calendar of events.

By SNO (Click Here for source)

On October 20th 2015 the SLHTA in collaboration with the Embassy of Mexico and the Embassy of Spain introduced a Pilot Programme to hospitality Industry Workers.

This Programme will be ongoing and is targeted at delivering an 8 week Spanish Language Training Course to Supervisors in the food and beverage department, front office, reservations, housekeeping and the spa department.

The SLHTA continues to encourage training and development of industry workers and wishes all employees who have signed up for this programme success in the Spanish Language Course.

The Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association congratulates Nicola Esnard and Kurtney Gill of the Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School who represented St Lucia at the Caribbean Junior Dueling Competition.

This year, the event saw a total of 9 Caribbean islands participating including Trinidad & Tobago, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada, Anguilla, Barbados, Bonaire, St Croix, St Lucia and Dominica.

After 3 rounds of tough competition, including Signature Dish, Mystery Basket and Finals team St Lucia performed exceptional. The team was able to secure a silver medal in the Signature and Mystery Basket Dish and a 3rd place in the Finals.

Preceding the actual competition, the participating teams benefited from presentations by experts in the industry as well as illustrations and other presentations by sponsors.

The SLHTA is very proud of the success of this year’s Junior Culinary Team.

The team who represented Saint Lucia was students from the Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School won the recently held SLHTA Chefs in Schools Cook-Off Competition.

The Tourism Enhancement Fund was the main sponsors of the Chefs in Schools Competition, and also funded the team’s trip to Barbados.

The Visitor Channel has recently completed the production of five (5) mini documentaries for a ‘Pilot Program’ promoting small properties in Saint Lucia. This pilot project was sponsored by the SLHTA’s Tourism Enhancement Fund which was established in October of 2013. 

Working on a creative brief from the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA), the production created character-driven stories on the select properties which fall under the small hotels and guesthouses in Saint Lucia,

These short contemporary stories of 5 individual owners, demonstrate clearly how people are the makers of an unforgettable holiday experience.

Leading up to the main holiday season, the Visitor Channel expects the increased visibility of these properties, to result in additional business for the owners and their staff. With the short stories airing soon, viewers will be treated to the unique nature of these types of properties.

Small properties world wide have already been recognized as attractions for more independent travelers, who are more adventurous and contribute more directly to local communities.

Until the end of November 2015, the Visitor Channel is offering a special rate for productions and advertising, to the owners of the small properties and guesthouses in Saint Lucia. More information is available at: visitorchannel@gmail.com – Subject HGems Special.

Managing Director of the Visitor Channel Mr. Andre Alexander and his team are pleased to share that the pilot production, which took place with five guesthouses, in various parts of the island, have contributed immensely in proving that Saint Lucia is by far more than simply beautiful.

The Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association Inc (SLHTA) hosted an official check handing-over ceremony for Jus’ Sail at its office in Rodney Heights, Gros Islet on Friday June 5^th 2015 at 10:00am.

The SLHTA’s Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) contributed approximately EC $30,000.00 towards Jus Sail’s Youth Training Programme which will see 10 additional young unemployed Saint Lucians gaining valuable life skills and experience.

Jus’ Sail’s focus is geared towards reviving St Lucia’s maritime culture through the engagement of youth in learning to sail and helping them gain employment within the industry. Jus’ Sail run youth training programs during the off-season summer months. The training programme has three tenets which underlie its focus – Training – Certification – Employment. To learn more about Jus Sail Youth Training Programme visit their website at www.jussail.com/youth-training-programme/.

The SLHTA sees this programme as an opportunity for many of our unemployed youth on the island to be exposed to a sector that has been underutilized and almost untapped. The Jus’ Sail Youth Training Programme is funded through donations from their guests and corporate sector. The Association fully endorses this programme and wishes Jus’ Sail all the best throughout the training programme.

The Tourism Enhancement Fund has been created to allow the SLHTA to play an integral part in the sustainable development of our destination. Through the Tourism Enhancement Fund, the SLHTA will be able to direct development efforts where they are most needed. Resort guests and all other island visitors are asked to proudly be part of this exciting initiative and donate US$2 for each night of their stay at Resorts here in Saint Lucia which will go entirely towards our Tourism Enhancement Fund.

SLHTA’s Tourism Enhancement Fund Sponsors “The Beautiful Community Competition”

On 22nd April 2015, the Gros Islet Constituency Council launched its Pli Belle Komin Konpetisyon (The Beautiful Community Competition) in commemoration of Earth Day 2015. The competition seeks to encourage communities across Gros Islet to take a greater interest in and responsibility for community spaces, and to improve their aesthetics, utility, productivity and safety. Other positive outcomes will be an identification of community priorities and development of a bank of project concepts for community-driven projects that the Council may be able to support for possible future grant funding. The Pli Belle Komin Konpetisyon is being supported by the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association Inc. , which has generously donated EC$20,000 in prize monies to this initiative. Additional cash or kind prizes are also being sought from the private sector. So far, Ace Hardware and Carasco and Sons have committed to in kind contributions.

Competition submissions will be accepted up to July 24, 2015, and an awards ceremony will be held on Gros Islet Day on August 1, 2015. Communities are encouraged to implement Koud Men projects within this time frame and enter them for judging under any number of the categories listed. Initiatives could conceivably include activities to:

• Clean up schools or communities;
• Green public space and road verges;
• Upgrade underutilized and/or poorly maintained open spaces, through projects that may include landscaping, outdoor furniture, exercise facilities such as jogging/cycling tracks, child play areas;
• Cultivate flowers or other crops on a communal basis, to generate funds to support community
• initiatives;
• Stabilize slopes, improve drainage systems and sidewalks;
• Provide receptacles for solid waste, or reduce waste through recycling, composting or reuse;
• Improve community bus shelters, vending spaces and other public facilities;
• Improve the condition of historical buildings and other sites of cultural or historical interest, whether publicly or privately owned;
• Improve area safety;
• Improve area lighting, preferably using renewable technologies.

Interested groups should call the Gros Islet Constituency Council at 450 0731 or email queries to grosisletcouncil@gosl.gov.lc Application forms can be obtained from the Council in hard copy or by email, or can be downloaded from the competition Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PliBelleKominKonpetisyon Participating communities are encouraged to post project updates to the Facebook page.  Additional information on prize donors and categories can also be found on the Facebook page.

Junior Chefs Prepares for Caribbean Junior Dueling Challenge 2014

Two students from the Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School will be representing Saint Lucia in the Caribbean Junior Dueling Competition to be held in Barbados. The competition is being supported by the SLHTA’s Tourism Enhancement Fund which was established in October of 2013.

Jana James and Yohance Cazaubon will be traveling to Barbados on Wednesday 20th August 2014 to compete against six (6) other Caribbean islands. The two students were the winners of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association’s Chef in Schools Cook-Off Competition which was held at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium on February 22nd 2014 (Independence Day).

The students will be accompanied by their coach Chef Hornan Refer Leonce of Cap Maison, their Food and Nutrition teacher Ms Macrina Joseph and Project Assistant of SLHTA Wendel George. The Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association is the main sponsor for the 2014 Junior Culinary Team for this year’s Caribbean Junior Dueling Competition.

The Caribbean Junior Culinary Conference 2014 will take place from August 21 to 24 at the Culinary Arena in Barbados. The CJCC will feature Workshops and Presentations by industry professionals and stakeholders, as well as Culinary Demonstrations by renowned regional and international Chefs from the United States Virgin Islands and Lincoln Culinary Institute.

The highlight of the Conference will be Caribbean Junior Duelling Challenge competition (CJDC), which is now in its sixth (6th) year. To be eligible for the competition, each team must be comprised of two (2) competitors who are between the ages of 13 and 20 years old. Teams will compete in a National Dish Round and a Mystery Basket Round; the scores from these two rounds will be totaled and the three highest scoring teams will advance to the finals.

Saint Lucia has won the last two competitions.

With an annual target of 2000 young people the SLHTA Apprenticeship Programme is picking up Steam.

The initiative, which comes in partnership with the Government of Saint Lucia, has so far trained over 200 people and targets unemployed youth from across the country and exposes them to the hospitality sector. The youth are given the opportunity to explore and receive invaluable training in the many professional avenues available in the tourism industry.

Chefs, Services Attendants, Engineering and Finance and even Food and Beverage are among the key areas being taught. Funding for the program comes from the highly successful Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), which is now in its second year.

Executive Vice President of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourist Association Noorani Azeez said the TEF is certainly beginning to have a considerable impact on the human resource development of Saint Lucia.

“I’m really glad to see that the tourism enhancement fund only in its second year is beginning to have such an impact. A number of our young people are still very unaware of the myriad of opportunity that exists in the tourism sector,” Azeez said.

He pointed out that the Tourism Internship Program not only provides valuable first hand experience for young people into the inner workings of the tourism sector, but it also creates for a greater appreciation on the part of the youth for the country’s largest economic driver.

“What this program does is give them valuable first hand experience about our leading economic sector. The hotel sector is in dire need of a number of skills that the country does not have, and if we can address this skills shortage problem then we can help to alleviate the frightening unemployment rate.

“We have much to celebrate and hope for from the future of the Tourism Internship Program,” Azeez said.

He added that the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourist Association was also pleased to have the support of the Government of Saint Lucia, which has clearly embraced the need for training and providing opportunities for young people in the industry.

“The SLHTA is pleased that the government of Saint Lucia strongly appreciates the need for training our young people to optimize the opportunities in the tourism sector. It is through pubic and private sector partnerships that we will solve the many challenges confronting us as a country today,” said the SLHTA Executive Vice President.

A number of large, medium and small hotels from across Saint Lucia – in addition to the SLHTA allied members, have partnered with the SLHTA and the Government of Saint Lucia on this life-altering initiative.

The TIP follows a series of Tourism Enhancement Fund backed projects that include afterschool programs, the reconstruction of a culinary arts room, the beautification of Rodney bay and other initiatives.

With such a prolific start, the Fund’s impact on the Human Resource of Saint Lucia can only make a big dent into the apparent disconnect between tourism skills and jobs.

National Research Development Foundation (NRDF) a nonprofit organization, along with Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA) hosted its first “Independence Cake Challenge” on February 20th and 21st, as part of Independence 2015 activities, and under the esteemed patronage of the Honourable Prime Minister.

The event was officially launched at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Rodney Bay.

A cadre of six (6) competitors some coming from as far as Vieux Fort and Soufriere have been charged with the task of baking and then decorating an “Independence” themed cake, to serve 100 persons, within 6 hours.

The baking and decorating challenge will showcase pastry chefs from some of St Lucia’s best hotels and past Students of the NRDF’s cake decorating courses, as a start to what is intended to be an annual feature on the Independence calendar. SLHTA’s Tourism Enhancement Fund, the Title Sponsor, no newcomer to such events has been promoting the importance of Education and Tourism through various public awareness programmes and so it was a piece of cake for them to respond enthusiastically to collaborating with NRDF on this venture.

Hon Dr Kenny D Anthony, Prime Minister has put his stamp of approval on the event, as the patron and the winning cake will have the honour of being showcased at the Prime Minister’s Annual Independence Cocktail.

The challengers will be proving their skill and creativity to three judges and an audience comprising cake enthusiasts and other specially invited guests. Mr Ronald Charles, NRDF General Manager, says however, that the event is underpinned by a greater purpose.

He said, “the Cake Challenge is more than just a fun competition. It is in fact a far-reaching message couched in sweet artistry, as the NRDF and its partners collaborate on promoting the idea of transforming hobbies into trades, thereby creating sustainable livelihoods, whether cake, leather work, handmade bags and so on.”

 

The Competitors

o Ronald Estephane – Junior Pastry Chef, Coconut Bay Resort and Spa (2015 Winner)
o Davis Hippolyte – Junior Pastry Chef, Capella at Marigot Bay
o Susan Charlery – Junior Pastry Chef, Sugar Beach a Viceroy Resort
o Celine Stephen – Past NRDF Cake Décor student
o Albertha Nelson – Past NRDF Cake Décor student
o Talisa Decembre – Past NRDF Cake Décor Student

 

The following prizes were up for grabs:

• 1st Prize
  o All expenses paid Internship at Johnson and Wales University Culinary Institute (Miami campus)
  o Showcased at the Prime Minister’s official annual Independence Cocktail
  • 2nd Prize
  o Internship at Jade Mountain St Lucia, to be taught by Jade’s pastry team lead by the Chief Judge himself, Chef Wouter Tjeertes
  • 3rd Prize
  o Cake Mixer

The esteemed panel of judges is:

• Chef Wouter Tjeertes, Director of Pastry at Jade Mountain St Lucia
  • Chef Sherma Peter, Pastry Chef at Jade Mountain St Lucia and National Pastry Chef Champion
  • Sen Berthia Parle MBE, General Manager of Bay Gardens Beach Resort and Spa

Sponsors

• Patron – Hon Kenny D Anthony, Prime Minister of St Lucia
  • Title Sponsor – SLHTA Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF)
  • Presenting Sponsors – Johnson and Wales University; Anse Chastanet & Jade Mountain
  • TV sponsor – Calabash TV
  • Gold sponsors – Baron Foods Ltd, Easter Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC), Anchor Butter
  • Silver sponsors – Ministry of Youth Development and Sports; Pine Hill, Courts
  • Bronze sponsors – CFL Ltd/Mega J’s, Travel and Leisure Centre
  • Other sponsors – FICS Ltd, 1st National Bank, Sunshine Snacks, Savvy Caribbean Marketing, Sofia’s Cake Décor Store

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social Transformation, Local Government & Community Empowerment, Ms. Juliana Alfred collected hampers for thirty (30) deserving families on Monday January 19, 2014.

The hampers materialized through the Tourism Enhancement Fund of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA). The benefactors have been identified as vulnerable through their enrollment in government’s Public Assistance Programme administered by the Ministry of Social Transformation.

SLHTA Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Noorani Azeez who handed over the supplies, noted that this commitment forms part of his organization’s ongoing community outreach initiatives.

“We are indeed elated to partner again with the SLHTA in our thrust towards community empowerment. This is the second time in recent months that the Ministry of Social Transformation has benefitted from the SLHTA’s Tourism Enhancement Fund- we have previously received their support with our Community After-School Programme,” Permanent Secretary Ms. Juliana Alfred noted; ” The SLHTA provided approximately $70,000 to assist the CASP in 2014″.

The Public Assistance Programme is a means tested initiative that provides cash benefits to qualifying individuals/households. This poverty alleviation mechanism provides support to approximately 2500 families annually.