Marketing of Vincymas has been removed from the festival’s organiser, the Carnival Development Corporation, and assigned to the Tourism Authority, which is tasked with marketing St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) as a tourism destination.
“Previously, you had the Marketing Officer of the Carnival Development Corporation struggling single-handedly, in some instances going to different source markets to market Vincymas,” Minister of Tourism and Culture, Carlos James said in his State of the Tourism Industry Address on Tuesday.
“The entire arm of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority, in every source market, will have that full responsibility to now officially market Vincymas 2024 and Vincymas going forward,” he said.
James also announced that addition of three people tro the board of the CDC.
They are Carlos “Manage” James, of the P’Tani Mas fame, Karen Veira, a marketing lead, and Calvert Jones.
“This is a good mix of technical skills both in finance, marketing, and the professionalism that they bring to the existing board of the CDC,” James said, adding that the new additions will no doubt redound in the benefit of our premiere festival product.
“Karen brings tremendous experience as an events host, mas band leader, marketing professional and creative. Carlos is an island scholar, professional accountant, one of the lead coordinators of P’Tani Carnival, and the band leader of the Country Meets Town J’ouvert band,” he said.
“Calvert will also lead the revamped National Cultural Foundation to focus on building out arts and festivals nationally, as we invest 7 million this year in the construction of cultural and artistic hubs across the country, but also more so as we look at revolutionising the arts and putting a lot more emphasis on culture as part of a tourism product,” the minister said.
James said a revamped National Cultural Foundation headed by Jones will also focus on emerging technology and culture, fashion and arts festivals supporting the SVG music festivals, the SVG Fashion Week, which he said will also launch this year.
The foundation will also establish a national film commission, James further stated, adding that Warner Music Group concluded a shoot here last week in SVG “quietly”.
“Producers for a reality TV series are currently scouting the island as a production base for one of their next seasons,” the minister said.
“As we intend to attract more movie production sets to the island, we have to put in place a number of measures and a regulatory process as to how we target and attract movie production sets to the island.
“All of these things will be done with the establishment of the National Film Commission under the auspices of the National Cultural Foundation supported by the Department of Culture,” James said.
My concern…… isn’t it too late to make such a switch for 2024. This change should have occurred immediately following VincyMas 2023 for maximum effect. It’s Marketing you’re speaking about.
Am I to assume things are so acute with the VincyMas Marketing that the plug had to be pulled instantly.
For years vincy mas suffered marketably. I hope that the initiatives announced will boost the national festival. The changes announced,while too early to see the effects should be seen as promising for now.
Some may also see the announcement by the minister to the daily oressures hauled on CDC for the poor job it has veen doing over the years. Dont forget election is in the air so a lot of primisses will be announced as is accustomed.
Also one must be guarded of the political involvement with the organisation where CDC officials silently complained of the harassment they received from ulp politicians and their psycophants. An announcement in this regard should have been made as well.