‘Historic Buju concert a success’ – KT Productions
Sitting down on the Tuesday, June 19, 2019, edition ‘Honestly Speaking’ with Claude O. Skelton-Cline, Mr Thompson said that as a result of the concert weekend, the Virgin Islands (VI) had an estimated 3000 visitors and due to this, some businesses have reported stellar revenues as a direct result of the show.
Tourists galore
“We had about close to 3000 visitors from North America and we had people from as far as New Zealand, I understood from the Tourist Board… the word got out there,” Thompson told Skelton-Cline and the listening audience in thanking sponsors and Premier and Minister of Finance Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1).
According to the event organiser, “When KT Productions put on an event, it’s not just a stage show, it’s not just [an] artiste on a stage performing, we want to give you a full experience. With that experience, of course, will come ambience and service and everything else that goes with it, so we tried our best, we worked hard over the past months and we bore the fruit we wanted to,” he implored.
‘Kenny’, speaking on the impact to local businesses, noted “I ran into a friend of mine who owns a prominent rental car business, and he said to me, thank you very much I made some money. And I charged winter rates,” he said, indirectly highlighting some possible price jacking given the economic laws of demand and supply.
Using the term ‘Entertainment Tourism,’ Thompson pointed to events such as the ‘Buju Banton’ as one that can boost the local tourism sector. He noted that a similar economic strategy is a big part of the tourism experience in many countries, including regional neighbours like St Kitts and Nevis and countrys that partake in Carnival.
‘Everybody made some money’ – Thompson
“It’s live, its vibrant and its lucrative,” he said regarding Entertainment Tourism. “This past event showed that the BVI is able to accommodate events of such magnitude despite all the concerns about the carrying capacity of the Venue. We saw that it was able to carry a great amount of patrons and there was breathing room for everyone.”
He revealed also that according to the BVI Tourism Board, hotels were booked throughout the territory, “These things are huge undertakings… I could go out on a limb and say that we basically carried the county on our back last weekend,” he said in noting that everybody made some money.
But even with ‘Kenny’s’ optimism regarding Entertainment Tourism, many including the family of Ronald Mickely Jr, complained to Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) of a streak of disappointments surrounding the events and venue.
“To tell you the least we were super disappointed, very disappointed, and it’s not us alone, many others will tell you they feel the same as us,” Mickely said.
In addition to KT Productions, The Long Walk to Freedom Concert was promoted in collaboration with Pumpstation Productions, Westline Entertainment and Xclusive Levels.
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9 Responses to “‘Historic Buju concert a success’ – KT Productions ”
Soo that crowd wasn’t a prob
The more the merrier as we would say
That being said
I have no complaints besides the price of the drinks mainly the Cruzan rum @$20 per drink
Nonetheless show was da Mf bomb #takemeback