How Nevis Built a Tourism Strategy Around Refusal
Nevis has built its tourism position around a list of things it will not allow: cruise ships, buildings taller than a coconut tree, fast food chains, traffic lights, and large all-inclusive resorts.
Mark Brantley, the Premier of Nevis, is unusually direct about where that list came from. I spoke with him by video in early August, after missing the island’s Mango Festival in July. Asked whether the refusals are a strategy or a constraint the island has learned to market, he said both. Nevis is not built to handle volume, and rather than treat that as a limitation, the government built its brand around it: luxury without being ostentatious, as he put it, and empty beaches.
The island is also spending money to make itself easier to reach. Ground has been broken on a facility with space for 50 private jets, and the government wants direct arrivals from the U.S. East Coast. The strategy now depends on Nevis staying scarce while becoming easier to get to.
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