Antigua

(Dive Travel Business News - December 29, 2011) -- Dive Travelers are going to have access to more air lift, more access, more options and more gateways from the U.S. this year signaling a comeback in travel from the past two years. The downside - higher fares and full planes. Here is a summary of some of the new air service.

Antigua -
• American began nonstop flights four times a week from Kennedy to Antigua in November.
• St. Vincent Grenadines Air offers daily scheduled service between Antigua and Montserrat.

Aruba -
• JetBlue offers a Saturday flight from Boston to Aruba in addition to its two weekly flights
• AirTran has weekend flights from Baltimore to Aruba through March 14, plus daily service to Aruba from Atlanta and weekend flights from Orlando.
• Delta has weekly nonstop service on Saturday from LaGuardia to Aruba, complementing its Saturday nonstop service from DKennedy and its flights via Atlanta to Aruba from Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Westchester County Airport. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - October 17, 2011) -- So much Sargassum seaweed has been washing up on Eastern Caribbean beaches this summer and fall that St. James's Club & Villas in Antigua was forced to close for several weeks in September to clean up the harmless but foul-smelling algae. Beaches on Antigua's northeast and southeast coasts were affected as well as some beaches in St. Maarten and Anguilla.

“The seaweed is gone now. It is floating around here and there, but the resort is back in full swing with white sandy beaches,” said Steve Heydt, president of Elite Island Resorts, a collection of seven properties on four islands, including St. James’s Club. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - July 22, 2010) --Montserrat’s Extreme Marine Scuba dive facility is offering travelers “Explore Montserrat,” a three-day adventure originating departing from Antigua and featuring unlimited diving, boat accommodations, meals and a boat tour to the former capital city of Plymouth.

The excursion offers unlimited diving at sites along Montserrat’s 13-mile coastline, which is filled with marine life since the eruption of the island’s Soufriere Hills Volcano in the mid-1990s. Wildlife includes dolphins, pipefish, eagle rays, green turtles and nurse sharks. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - May 10, 2010 ) -- Antigua reportedly is cracking down hard on crime in the wake of the highly-publicized of a cruise ship passenger earlier this year. Antigua's tourism minister, Jon Maginley says, "We have adopted a zero tolerance (for) criminals and their behavior," saying the country will do what it takes to make the country a "safe, secure and peaceful destination."

Industry watcher Seatrade Insider reports the tourism-dependent country has beefed up manpower on its police force, instituted a new community-based policing system and spent millions of dollars on a new communications system for rapid response by law enforcement in the months since the brutal killing of a Star Clippers passenger.  read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - February 3, 2010) -- Police in Antigua report that a 24-year-old man from Dominica has confessed to fatally stabbing a San Francisco woman in the neck during a cruise stopover. Tishara Daniel was arraigned on Monday Feb 1 and has been remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison in St. John’s to await a hearing on May 28.