According to Destination Marketing Manager of DDA, Kimberly King, “Discover Dominica Authority and Dominica Festivals Committee are working assiduously to plan, collaborate, facilitate, produce and execute some of those events that you have come to know and love.”
She continued, “Both DDA and DFC will do things slightly different this year to sweeten your experience in Dominica for Carnival 2023.”
Her remarks came while addressing a press conference on Wednesday.
King explained that in the coming weeks through its marketing outlets, both DDA and DFC will raise awareness of Mas Domnik and showcase why it has been dubbed the most original Mas in the Caribbean.
“Not only will we tell the story of Dominica’s unique Carnival, but we will inspire you to book that flight or ferry to Dominica and experience it yourself,” she stated. “After all, it has been two years since you have experienced this type of revelry on the road or experienced some of the signature events like Miss Dominica and SunRise.”
Meantime, King said that this week the focus will be on friends in the diaspora residing in the French West Indies.
“As you know, in 2019 the French West Indies made up at least 33% of total carnival arrivals,” King revealed. “This year I would like to say to our friends and diaspora to come back to the Nature Island for Carnival.”
She noted that Dominica is very accessible to those originating from Guadeloupe and Martinique via ferry and flights.
“Please be sure to check out Express des Iles and its offer starting from $99Euro to Dominica, Air Antilles’ offer starting from $80Euro to Dominica, Val Ferry and its offer starting from approximately $89 Euro To Dominica,” she revealed. “All offers are subject to conditions and you can get more information via the websites of Express des Iles, Air Antilles and Val Ferry or contact the travel agents or local agents.”
Because of the difficulty getting to Dominica from the U.K. I have already decided to travel via Martinique and then by ferry. Now, Martinique has its own carnival, as has Guadeloupe, on the same dates as ours. In fact our carnival originates from the French one. The carnival in Martinique is very attractive and professionally organised so I think I will stay there and come to Dominica after that to see friends when everything is back to normal. No need to expose myself to that rowdy mess in Roseau. Sorry.
“She noted that Dominica is very accessible to those originating from Guadeloupe and Martinique via ferry and flights”…truer words have never been spoken, except she failed to mention the difficulty in getting to Dominica from everywhere else.
Before the minister announced the reduced flight by American Airlines, I was searching for flight to Dominica and just about every combination of flights had me being routed either through Miami, Charlotte, New York then to San Juan. All this time, I thought there were daily flights to Dominica via Miami. There was such fanfare about those flight less than a year ago that I could not understand why AA was routing me through San Juan. After the minister’s statement I came to understand why that was so.
So yes, good connections from the French islands, but not so for anywhere else.
Given J’Ouvert and Carnival have their roots in Dominica’s heritage, I’d really like to know why it’s DDA and DFC and not the Culture Division that’s running things. It seems to me that Carnival, like just about everything relating to Dominica’s inherent culture, is being turned into a tourism product. Isn’t it time Dominicans reclaimed their heritage and stopped turning everything into something to entertain tourists?