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Contact:
Primus Hutchinson
Tuesday, August 03, 2004 - St. Lucia is soon to benefit from a direct
weekly service from a British Midlands International (BMI) Airbus out of
Manchester with a carrying capacity of 400 passengers.
The airline was first slated to begin a shared service to St. Lucia and Barbados
in November this year. But after an analysis of St. Lucia’s performance in the
market, BMI decided to enhance its services here with a direct, dedicated flight
to St. Lucia every Monday.
“This new air service will provide the island with the opportunity to share a
section of the British market that was never ventured into before”, said Public
and Visitor Relations Manager of the St. Lucia Tourist Board, Kimani Goddard,
adding, “It will also allow the Tourist Board to market St .Lucia as a tourism
product to a completely new, UK Market. She noted that this new air service
would provide an even greater boost for St. Lucia’s wedding and honeymoon
markets. “As you know, St. Lucia has a very high percentage of visitors coming
for weddings and honeymoon, and the timing of the flight will be very important
for that market”, Miss Goddard said.
Currently, over 36% of arrivals to St. Lucia are for weddings or honeymoon, with
excess demand in the market, especially in the UK market. Figures from January
to June 2004 show a 13.9% increase in arrivals from the UK market. Miss Goddard
attributable this to St. Lucia’s marketing efforts and the increase air lift out
of the UK market over the past three years.
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