Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5486/-1/135/
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Cultural Fair Open Tourism Week
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A cultural fair, which featured string band music, local foods and preserves, art work and various other items of craft, marked the official opening of Tourism Week in Anguilla on Saturday, November 24, under the theme: The Anguilla Experience: Managing Change. The impressive display was held on the grounds of the Caribbean Commercial Complex in The Valley.
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Smokey and the Uprising String Band
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The fair also included various tourism scenes of Anguilla prepared by the Tourist Board as well as historical information on the island provided by Colville Petty’s Heritage Collections Museum. The beautiful display boards were previously mounted in New York during a promotional presentation by representatives of the Tourist Board to mark the 40th Anniversary of the Anguilla Revolution.
Tourism Advisor Donna Banks chaired the opening ceremony for Tourism Week. Chairman of the Tourist Board, John Benjamin, stated that Anguilla had come a long way since its 1967 revolution. He noted that now that the island had reached this stage in its development, there was a need to take stock of where it was going.
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All-Ah-Wee Young Theatre Players
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“We have to take stock to ensure that we maintain the edge that we have throughout the Caribbean,” he went on. “We are in a global market fighting a global war in terms of industry and getting our fair share of the market, and we must ensure that we can keep the quality that we have worked so hard for over the years. We are the envy of the Caribbean with what we do with so little and achieve so much.
“This year the Tourism Board in England got the UK award because of our success with the market there. We managed to achieve 53.8 percent growth over the past year. In the Caribbean as a whole we were [the industry] leaders…If we change the product and the life-style too drastically, we will lose all that we have.”
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Bernice Fahie Richardson with James R. Harrigan
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Benjamin hoped that Anguilla would remain as tranquil as possible so that tourism could flourish, and he reminded those persons involved in crime and violence that they were eventually damaging themselves. “Only we who live here will suffer from those consequences. We can’t turn a blind eye to the wrong and with tourism it cannot be business as usual,” he advised. “Just as you cannot turn a blind eye to the changes taking place in your body, you cannot turn a blind eye to the changes happening in Anguilla.”
Minister of Tourism, Victor Banks, said the cultural fair was to accentuate the Anguillian experience. “That is what we are offering as a tourism product in Anguilla,” he continued. “It is the experience of coming to the island and tasting the various delights that we have to offer – whether it be our beaches, the service that we provide to visitors, the food that we prepare, the entertainment that we offer, the support that we give them in other services; and the products that we sell – whether they are cultural artefacts, handicraft or agricultural produce.
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Gillian Wallace with handicraft products
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“When people come to our shores, they must have an idea of what we are – our history and our culture… We must let them know who we are, what made us what we are and what we want them to be like when they want to become a part of us. That is what we are offering. Unless we show pride in Anguilla, nobody coming to the island will show pride in what we have to offer.”
Mr. Banks added that the cultural fair was an important concept because it lent itself to bringing together “our history, culture, tradition and what we want to offer to people to come to our shores.”
One of the other two speakers was Alfred Thompson, a representative of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association. He said Anguillians should be very proud of where their island had come after 40 years. “This is an achievement in itself…The challenge going forward ‘Managing Change’ as our theme suggests, is something that demands continued debate, discussion and dialogue,” he further said. “I encourage the various associations and the whole population to get involved in this going forward. There are changes and all Anguillians must get involved if we are to keep our focus and not lose control of the industry that makes our livelihood.”
The other speaker was Director of Tourism, Amelia Vanterpool-Kubisch, who delivered the Vote of Thanks.
During the opening ceremony there were performances by the All-Ah-Wee Dance Theatre Group and Smokey & The Uprising Stars String Band. Among those in attendance were the members of the Anguilla National Culinary Team.
One of the participants in the cultural fair was Bernice Fahie-Richardson whose display tables included a collection of traditional dolls, some of them dressed in the national colours, wines made from local fruit; preserves; fruit sauces; sherry, mango and guava jam, tamarind bars and pepper sauce.
“I am a very creative person. I enjoy using my hand and doing some local things that some people ignore,” said the former Home Economics Teacher, who runs the Georgian Store in the Ultra Cool Building featuring a variety of locally-made products.
Another exhibitor was Gillian Wallace, proprietor of Jadalia Designs, which has now been relocated from The Farrington to one of the rented spaces at the Caribbean Commercial Complex. “We have jewellery, designed and hand-made by me,” said the talented craftswoman. “I have some Anguilla T-shirts also with designs by me and printed at Caribbean Silk Screen and I have a few Bob Marley T-shirts for ladies and men and bags hand-crafted by myself.”
Gill added: “You don’t have to go to the Farrington. At the Caribbean Commercial Complex, we are right in the city.”