Crowds expected at Abaco food and wine festival

Mon, Feb 17th 2014, 08:42 AM

With the islands of Abaco growing by "leaps and bounds" as a tourism destination, the quaint community of Green Turtle Cay is looking to attract hundreds when it hosts a unique food and wine festival next month.Green Turtle Club Resort & Marina will host Devour! The Beach, a three-day event. The hotel's sales and assistant general manager, Molly McIntosh, admitted that despite occupancy numbers looking good for 2014, there is a challenge getting visitors to the island due to the availability and pricing of flights."Everyone can agree that we need to do more events to draw people in to the Out Islands. So this is an event that we thought we could do successfully to bring some business in," she said to Guardian Business."It's going to be great for the whole island, not just for Green Turtle Cay. In fact, it may get so big that we may have to move it over to the mainland if it really picks up like we think it's going to."McIntosh is hoping the action-packed, weekend-long event, featuring four celebrity chefs and a master of wine, will attract between 100 and 150 people.Already, McIntosh said the people are excited about the event and while they can accommodate between 70 and 75 people, some have rented houses. The Ministry of Tourism has joined in the efforts to push the event by promoting it through its website and other forms of social media."It's expected to be an extraordinary culinary event by international chefs from Chicago, Las Vegas, Cleveland, Dallas, Ottawa and Halifax," according to McIntosh."There will be talks about wine. There will be two nights of gala-themed dinners. On the last day, we're having a beach barbecue and a showing of films that night."It's the first of what we're hoping would become an annual event. It's a food and wine festival. We're bringing in four celebrity chefs and a master of wine."In the meantime, things are looking good for the Green Turtle Club Resort & Marina."We're very optimistic but cautiously so. But we're just starting to build. Usually June is our busiest month. Abaco is growing by leaps and bounds. People are very interested. I have been on phone all day booking people to come down. We have a package that we are able to do that includes airfare because when people travel, they want to go to a place that's a one-stop shop," she explained."It's hard to get to a lot of the Out Islands due to availability and pricing. So we have to make it as easy as we can and as attractive as we can because once we get them there, we're good because they will come back. But it's getting them to come for the first time. That's the challenge for us."Devour! The Beach takes place March 26-29 at the Green Turtle Club Resort & Marina.

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