At a party hosted at a Paddock Road home in Oak Bluffs, guests mingled with officials from a small island that has no traffic lights, no major fast-food brands, and an economic reliance on tourism.
While that might sound like Martha’s Vineyard, these weren’t officials looking to boost tourism on the Vineyard. The August 13 event was a part of the Nevis Tourism Authority’s mission to raise awareness about the small Caribbean island of Nevis as a travel destination, and to attract some of the summer travelers who visit the Vineyard — especially Black visitors and residents.
Premier Mark Brantley of Nevis made his first-ever visit to the Vineyard last week as a part of a tourism push being made in the U.S. The Nevis team also held an event in New York to promote tourism to their island earlier this summer.
Brantley highlighted to The Times that Nevis, like the Vineyard, attracts high-profile homeowners and vacationers, like Princess Diana in the early ’90s, among other celebrities.
“We’re definitely on that circuit, and we want more of it, frankly,” Brantley said.
Nevis is a roughly 36-square-mile, lush, volcanic island that is a part of the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. The smaller of the two islands, Nevis is home to more than 13,000 residents, according to the St. Kitts and Nevis Department of Statistics.
At the party on the Vineyard, Brantley introduced Nevis to guests with witty anecdotes about the quirks of living on the Caribbean island.
“If you want fried chicken, you have to fry it yourself,” Brantley told the guests, although he said some Nevisians will take a ferry over to the sister island, St. Kitts, to bring back home “buckets of KFC.”
Brantley also said Nevis’ “most famous export” to the U.S. was Alexander Hamilton, a U.S. Founding Father and the first secretary of the Treasury, who was born on Nevis.
“He designed your financial system, so I think we’ve done our part. Time for you to do your bit,” Brantley said jokingly.
Tourism is Nevis’ main economic engine, and it, much like the Vineyard, felt the brutal sting of its collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brantley said Nevis has been working to diversify its economy following the pandemic, including pushing to become fully powered by renewable energy, such as geothermal energy; laying the groundwork for a film industry; and bolstering financial services available to clients.
Nevis has also been leveraging citizenship to attract investment to the island. Those who make a $250,000 investment or acquire real estate worth at least $400,000 can receive St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship for themselves and their family. Brantley said the “fastest growing segments” of this market are now from the U.S. and Canada.
“I don’t know what’s happening in the U.S., but it seems like some people are hedging their bets on getting another passport just in case,” Brantley told the laughing party guests.
Amid these efforts, Brantley said Nevis is also hoping to diversify its visitor population from various backgrounds.
Candi Carter, Nevis diversity ambassador and an Emmy awardwinning producer turned e-commerce tech CEO, said she got involved with the island when she was introduced to Brantley as someone who could bolster the Nevisian entertainment sector. But she noticed during the first week visiting Nevis that she met only one African American tourist.
Carter utilized her network, which consists of many successful Black business executives, doctors, and lawyers, to bring together the party in Oak Bluffs to promote Nevis. And while the Four Seasons resort on Nevis is the lodging that receives the most publicity on the island, Carter said there are various accommodations at affordable prices for family and solo travelers.
“Sadly, the stereotype is only athletes and people like that can afford to go to a place like Nevis,” Carter said.
Bill and Terri Borden, longtime Oak Bluffs homeowners who hosted the party at their house, said the event came to be after they “really hit it off” with Brantley during a paid visit to Nevis they took in May, which they won in a raffle last year.
Bill Borden said they were happy to have hosted the event, and that it was fitting because the Island had recently been a “mecca of African American activities” — the Martha’s Vineyard Black Book Festival showcased U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at the closing of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. And the theme of local Black excellence was also present at the party. Terri spotlighted Chef Ting, whose Oak Bluffs restaurant, Black Joy Kitchen, catered the event. “She has the ability and the gift of bringing foods together from all over the world,” Terri Borden said.
It was also no coincidence that Mark Brantley and his wife, Nevis First Lady Sharon Brantley, were booked to stay near downtown Oak Bluffs, the Vineyard town with the deepest Black historical roots. Carter, who’s visited the Vineyard for 30 years and became engaged in Oak Bluffs, said she wanted the Brantleys to “feel and experience the history here,” from Inkwell Beach to homes visited by leaders of the American civil rights movement. Carter said the Brantleys were “really blown away” by the Vineyard.
Mark Brantley spoke about the safe community on the Vineyard and the good vibes he witnessed. “It reminds me a lot of Nevis, to be honest,” Brantley said.
Amid the parallels between two islands — from protecting their environment to pursuing renewable energy — Nevis also shares challenges familiar to Martha’s Vineyard, like residents’ access to affordable housing, and climate change. WIC News, an online news site focused on the West Indies and Caribbean, reported in January that the Nevis Island Administration had purchased more than 36 acres of land for $3.6 million to address a growing demand for affordable housing. Last September, Denzil Douglas, foreign affairs minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, highlighted at the U.N. that the “devastating effects” of climate change have already been felt by Caribbean countries, and called for more urgency in addressing the issue on the international stage.
Brantley said government and tourism stakeholders have been working with local organizations to “ensure that growth is sustainable” and that “the benefits of tourism extend to our residents year-round,” such as initiatives “to support local entrepreneurship, community-based tourism programs, and partnerships that create employment and training opportunities for Nevisians.
“Like any small island community, Nevis is mindful of the challenges that come with a tourism-driven economy and climate change,” Brantley said.
Brantley also said, “Protecting our natural assets is at the heart of what makes Nevis special,” noting “strict building regulations” against high-rise developments and “ongoing programs to protect our reefs, beaches, and turtle nesting areas.” He also said measures are being taken on Nevis to “address shoreline preservation and coastal resilience.”
Ultimately, Brantley said, the goal was to maintain Nevis as a location visitors can “fall in love with” by preserving “an authentic, welcoming, and unspoiled island.”
As this was a first trip to the Vineyard for Brantley, he didn’t want to be “overly ambitious” and commit to making a deeper connection between the two islands. But he didn’t rule it out.
“I’m here to see and to learn … but I like the vibe here a lot,” Brantley said. “It’s a very Caribbean vibe, believe it or not.”
Carter said in a press release issued after the party that she will be working to build a bridge between the Vineyard and Nevis, to “introduce even more communities to the serene embrace of Nevisian hospitality.”
In the meantime, Gloria Watson, who owns a home at Meadow View Farms in Oak Bluffs, and Rosalind Williams of Maryland can look forward to a trip to Nevis they won during a raffle at the party.
“It’s amazing,” Watson said, saying she’ll be visiting Nevis “sooner rather than later.”