According to the Minister for Communications and Works Hon. Mark H. Vanterpool, the Crafts Alive Village is scheduled to be officially opened on Tuesday, February 26, 2013. Photo:VINO

The revelation was made during the broadcast of the NDP radio show aired on a local radio station last evening, February 18, 2013.

The Minister earlier related there were a lot of concerns about cruise tourism last year and projections were very disappointing for the current year.

He noted, however, that as soon as the information was received the Ministry got into action and started making contacts and visits to various places including Curacao and France.

The Minister said after the intervention, things have now started to look like they’re ‘rebounding’. “In terms of projections, we believe we’ll have a much better year than we had expected, I don’t think it would be as great as it was before but it would be a lot better than we had seen on the horizon.

He also explained that a group will be representing the Territory in Miami during the month of March to ‘spend some more time with the cruise tourism business’ while attending a trade show there.

Hon. Vanterpool related that when the current administration came into office, he was advised by Premier Dr the Hon. D. Orlando Smith that ‘tent city has to go’. “We started right away to make plans… we decided that rather than just throwing the folks out, we felt that we should accommodate them and we jumped right into action and upgraded the Crafts Alive Village.”

Following the move of some thirty-six persons from the cruise pier dock area to the Crafts Alive Village, there are now reportedly over sixty persons plying their trade at the Village.

The Minister also apologised to the public for the traffic disruption that occurred on February 18, 2013 near the Village due to the current works being done to construct a raised crosswalk to link the Village with Main Street.