Nevis Tourism Tips

Janet Silvera, Senior Tourism Writer

Tourism interests want the United States to further relax requirement for visas to enter countries.

Reeling from a marked decrease in United States visitors to the region, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) wants an extension to the temporary relaxation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) announced by the American government last week.

Representing 32 Caribbean countries, the organisation, headed mainly by tourism ministers, is urging a full waiver of these requirements until July 2009, when the rules are scheduled to come into effect for cruise passengers travelling into the region.

At the close of the week-long Caribbean Week celebrations in New York City on Friday, the CTO ministers called on their heads of governments to broach the proposal at the CARICOM 20/20 Vision meeting with President George Bush in Washington, D.C., this Wednesday.

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MIAMI (AP):

An ageing United States weather satellite crucial to accurate predictions on the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any moment, and plans to launch a replacement have been pushed back seven years to 2016.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) chief said the failure of the QuikScat satellite could bring more uncertainty to forecasts and widen the areas that are placed under hurricane watches and warnings.

If the satellite faltered, experts estimate that the accuracy of two-day forecasts could suffer by 10 per cent and three-day forecasts by 16 per cent, which could translate into miles of coastline and the difference between a city being evacuated or not. The satellite covers about 90 per cent of the globe’s oceans, experts say.

“We would go blind. It would be significantly hazardous,” said Wayne Sallade, emergency manager in Florida’s Charlotte County, which was hit hard by Hurricane Charley in 2004.

In the letter to a Florida congressman, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher blamed the delays on technical and budget problems. Scientists said if QuikScat failed, they may have to rely on less accurate satellites.
Bill Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said authorities “may have to err on the side of caution” in future forecasts.

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