by A. Aisha Caleb-Browne

Antigua & Barbuda’s Director of Tourism in the United States Derede Samuel-Whitlock is confident that the renaissance of the Sweet Cry Freedom Concert will be a plus for the country’s tourism brand.

Samuel-Whitlock told the Antigua Sun that she intends to capitalize on the concert as a way to engage the US market, particularly with the recent merger of Carnival with culture and tourism.

As there are many synergies that could come out of such integration, she revealed that her main philosophy in marketing tourism is to brand Antigua “outside the box”. “Yes our tag line is “the beach is just the beginning”, and we try to present some of the flavours beyond the beaches.”

She added with this in mind, it is important to take into account the varying tastes of travelers and the reason they visit the island.

“I believe consumers are consumers; the same consumers that buy vacation packages are the same ones who visit our islands to immerse themselves in our music and our culture.”

Samuel-Whitlock noted that what previously set the Sweet Cry concerts apart from other concerts in Antigua, was the mixture of regional and international artists.

She conceded that although it is not a full-blown music festival as in some of the other countries, it still has the capacity to rival similar activities in its own right.

“We hope that out of this will come an awareness for the music lovers…and we hope to position ourselves as a destination that has a number of different festivals and who will ultimately embark on the development of a music festival. This is a baby step in that direction.”

Furthermore, the director indicated that whereas other festivals are purely entertainment, Sweet Cry Freedom has always had a component where African-Americans throughout the world are honored.

It has been revealed that one of the honorees at this year’s concert will be basketball great Earvin “Magic” Johnson who, after publicly announcing his positive HIV status, has continued his fight for increased HIV/AIDS awareness.

“There is a big fascination with celebrities…what they do, what destinations they visit. So if we can get celebrities like him and others on our celebrity list, it’s the type of news that some of the celebrity pages will pick up.

“And when you have limited budgets like us, these are some of the non traditional methods that can be utilised and explored.”

This type of exposure Samuel-Whitlock stressed is also needed for Antigua to again distinguish itself in another area of tourism.

“People have asked me when Antigua is going to have its own music festival. I believe we need to have our own unique model; to make it more of an experience weekend as opposed to purely music.

“I think the concert will be a good template from which to grow; we need to really harness our culture as a core component of our tourism product,” stated Samuel-Whitlock.

Reprinted with permission from The AntiguaSun Newspaper