by Curlan Campbell
- GTA assisted taxi operators to become fully-fledged tour operators
- National Taxi Association and Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market forged alliance
- Taxi operators and vendors must be fully vaccinated to be included in beach bubble tour
The Grenada Tourism Authority assisted taxi operators to become fully-fledged tour operators in their own right. This means they can now market their services directly to cruise ships by cutting out the middleman.
Minister of Tourism Dr Clarice Modeste-Curwen hailed this as a new dawn for the National Taxi Association as small taxi operators.
Minister Modeste-Curwen noted the need to ensure that the tourism industry stays abreast with the changing dynamics of travel.“Covid has given us an opportunity to be innovative, come up with a new way of doing things, taxi man must no longer sit down and wait until tourists come. Taxi men must be organised and they must market. We must help them market on the cruise ship and even before people board the cruise ship so that you know beforehand that you are getting a certain amount of passengers.”
In addition, the National Taxi Association and the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market forged an alliance to ensure that the market is included in the beach guided bubble tours with passengers from the cruise ships. This has been one of the concerns for vendors at the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market, who for many years have received direct tours from the cruise ships.
Nikoyan Roberts, Nautical Development Manager, explained how the relationship between the National Taxi Association and the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market will work out in executing the strategic pilot beach bubble tours. “The visitors will be dropped off at the main entrance of the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market and have the opportunity to purchase quality craft items, local food and drink from our fully vaccinated vendors. The tour will culminate after the 3-hour period where the visitors are collected at the original drop-off point and returned to the Melville street cruise terminal. While on the beach, visitors will be allowed to rent beach chairs from fully vaccinated GTA registered beach chair operators and the area where these activities are to be carried out will be cordoned off and monitored by our GTA security team.”
Roberts indicated that the pilot beach bubble tours will be evaluated on a daily basis to identify challenges that must be addressed immediately in order to enhance the visitor experience and ensure the safety of everyone involved. She stressed that taxi operators and vendors looking to cash in on this opportunity must be fully vaccinated to be included in the beach bubble tour.
Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority, Barry Collymore, welcomed this initiative as it repositions the craft industries for a more resilient future. “If you want to come to the Grand Anse beach, you have to register at the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market… and I reckon that we will increase traffic to the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market by 70% just by doing that.”
Collymore said the way forward now is to look at how can the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market be upgraded to make the experience more enjoyable for visitors.
Both the President of the National Taxi Association, Cosmos Williams and representative of the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market, Ralph Thomas, were elated about this new strategic alliance, citing it as a new dawn for the tourism industry.
