Sometimes you just have to smile, says Glen Beache – not that the CEO of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority finds anything amusing about the recent volcanic eruptions on his Caribbean island. But, as he says, “you just have to put a smile on your face sometimes to make light of everything that’s going on.”

And as if the eruption of La Soufrière volcano a little over a month ago wasn’t serious enough, it came as St. Vincent, and its neighbouring Grenadines (SVG), like most of the world, continued to struggle to emerge from the equally serious COVID-19 pandemic.

“The last year and half,” Beache observes, “has been rough.”

Beache figures Canadians, in particular, will understand the scope of St. Vincent’s recent volcanic event. “Imagine 16 inches of snow,” he says. “Imagine that snow drift being ash – and it can’t melt if the sun comes out, it’s just ash.”

But beyond being kindred spirits, Beache – himself born and raised in Canada – says Canadians are an important part of islands’ tourism landscape, pointing out, for example, that Air Canada was the first international airline to fly directly into SVG – service that is currently scheduled to re-start on Sept. 13, according to the airline.

“Canada definitely holds a special place in our hearts,” he says, adding, “The progress of tourism in SVG, especially since the opening of the international airport has largely happened because of the Canadians coming. Canadians are known to be more adventurous, and for that we are grateful.”

SVG, consisting of 32 and islands and cays in the Windward Islands chain, which stretches between St. Lucia in the north and Grenada in the south, is one of the most diverse destinations in the Caribbean. Its primary niches are sailing/yachting, diving, romance, and adventure.

But Beache says “the volcano is going to change the way we approach a lot of things this year” – this in addition to changes necessitated by the pandemic, including the importance of vaccinations for entry into the country.

As for the Soufrière situation, Beache says some of the initial 20,000 people that had to be evacuated from the northern part of St. Vincent because of the eruption on April 9 are starting to return to their homes. “But a lot of ash has fallen. It has become an issue… to returning to some sort of normalcy of life,” he says.

As such, he adds, “Tourism is going to play a very important part in the recovery of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

To that end, he concedes that the adventure sector has taken a hit with some of the sights (trails, waterfalls, etc.) damaged or inaccessible – “so that is going to take awhile to get back.”

In the near term, yachting and diving will become a priority for the tourism board – not least because, as Beache told Travel Industry Today, the Grenadines survived the volcano’s blast with minimal damage.

He also emphasized that the entire island of St. Vincent is not covered in ash and that the southern “green zone” of the island is largely back to normal.

As for what the tourism board is able to do to entice Canadians to return, Beache says much of it depends on this country’s borders re-opening and the subsequent return of Air Canada – flights that were a “game changer” for the islands when they launched – along with its associated Air Canada Vacations packages.

When Canadians do return, they can look forward to a host of new hotel developments coming online, including:

• Beaches, with hopes for phase 1 with 200 rooms open by the end of 2022
• A new Marriott resort up and running within two years
• Royal Mills on track for late 2022
• Development of a Holiday Inn near the airport

And they will still find an up-and-coming destination in the Caribbean that has consciously not been allowed to become over-touristed and fulfills the Caribbean ideal of “coconut and mango trees, white and black sand beaches, lush green vegetation…

“When you think of the Caribbean, SVG is exactly what you think of. What sets us apart is that we’re still that authentic Caribbean feeling,” says Beache.

But he concedes that tourism recovery is not going to happen overnight.

Nevertheless, Beache vows that as the clean-up continues, “We’re working hard to getting back to where we need to be,” and that “with all hands on deck in SVG, we will come out of this even stronger.

“LaLa (the volcano),” he adds, “has definitely made us look at things differently. We have some destruction, but we’re going to come back bigger and better, and improve on what we had before.”