July 18, 2008

Courts sponsers local artists, steel band

On Wednesday July 16, Courts St. Lucia held a press briefing at its Castries bransch to make an official annoucement regarding their participation in this year's carnival celebrations in St. Lucia. Courts is strongly backing two newcomers in the Soca arena this year, namely, The Viking and Superman HD both of whom were finalists in this year's Power Socamonarch competition which took place last Saturday, on the 12th. The manager of De Ashanti, another artist, who is also supported by the Courts, was also present at the short ceremony. The company is also proud to be affiliated to two of its employees who are also taking part in the field of Calypso this year. One of them, Davis Felix was qualified to the semi-finals at this year's Calypso competition, and the other Cindy Charlemagne is the Courts representative at the Inter-commercial house Calypso competition. Courts Babonneau Steel Orchestra which is the Courts signature pan-side, and which the company sponsors annually to a tune of around EC$25,000, is also looking forward to bring home the victory. The Courts Babonneau Steel Orchestra will be performing Herb Black's Calypso Jail at Friday's panorama.

July 18, 2008

Reusable Green Bag Delivers

Consolidated Foods Ltd. presented a cheque of $4750 to MESPRO International who are the coordinators of the Miss St. Lucia-Earth Pageant. The cheque ensures a commitmentmade by the company in March this year, that one dollar (EC $ 1.00)on every Super J (supermarket) reusable Green bag sold would be contributed towards environmental causes in St. Lucia. MESPRO is the first recipeint of that commitment and more environmental organisations are expected to benefit as Super J continues to sell reusable green bags. The introduction of reusable green bag is in keeping with CFL's effort to help "green" St. Lucia by providing alternatives to the use of plastic bags in the stores. Super J is among the few supermarkets in the region to introduce such a concept. Research has been pointing to the fact that consumers actually want to get more involved in protecting and preserving the environment.

July 18, 2008

Kids play Mas!

On Sunday the 13th of July, junior revelers in St. Lucia exhibited their costumes at a parade which started at the Castries waterfront, passed through the streets of Castries and ended at the Mindoo Phillip Park. The event was the annual junior carnival which comprises a part of St. Lucia's carnival celebrations. This year, eight bands took part namely, Just Us Kids with a "Mask-Parade", Charmalions performing "Tribes of Africa", XS Energy performing "Games we play", Extreme Kiddies performing "Carribbean jewels", "Saint Lucian Spirits", The Aztecs and Rituals performing "Papyon Volay". Along with these bands, there was a school band called Dame Pearlette Louisy Primary who performed "Iyanola Unleashed" and another band from the Division of Human Services and Family Affairs who performed "A Family Affair". The Just Us Kids band led by Barry George won the competition with the junior band of the year title. The XS Energy stood second with the newcomers, Dame Pearlette Louisy Primary School stood third. The 2008 Junior carnival was certainly well attended and was there was certainly a clear improvement since the last year's event. This event was held under the direction of the Cultural Development Foundation and was organised foremostly by the junior carnival committee and the Lions Club of Castries.

July 18, 2008

St. Lucia records increase in the influx of tourists.

Introductory figures released by the St. Lucia Tourist Board show that the number of tourist stopover, arrivals i.e. persons staying 24 hours or more, increased by 10% in May 2008 which counted up to 27,782 visitors compared to 25,212 visitors who arrived in May 2007. However, the volume of cruise visitors declined by 10% compared to May 2007, falling from 24,336 visitors in 2007 to 21,748 visitors this May. Number of tourists from USA grew by 8.7% i.e. from 10,770 in May 2007 to 11,709 this May. Canadian tourists showed a 36% increase from 759 in May 2007 to 1,037 this May. Number of tourists from United Kingdom showed a 7% increase compared to May 2007 i.e. from 6,787 in May 2007 to 7,262 this May. The influx of European tourists scaled up with 62% with 689 tourists last May to 1,120 led by strong increases from France (upto 86%) and from Ireland (upto 130%) Traffic from Carribbean markets showed a 7% increase compared to May 2007, growing from 5,845 visitors last year to 6,268 visitors this May. The growth was led by a 12.7% increase in traffic from Martinique, showing 1,770 last May to 1,994, this May, with majority of visitors coming to visit the St. Lucian Jazz Festival. The number of arrivals from Trinidad and Tobago increased by 23% i.e. from 878 in May 2007 to 1,080 in May 2008. However, the number of visitors from Barbados decreased slightly by 2% from 1,086 arrivals last year to 1,066 in May 2008.