Saint Lucia Is Tapping the World’s Fastest Woman (And Its First Gold Medalist) to Bolster Its Cruise Industry

She’s the world’s fastest woman, and now Julien Alfred is helping Saint Lucia bring in the world’s biggest cruise ships. 

Allred, who won the island’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in Paris last summer, is working with Saint Lucia tourism officials to promote cruise tourism to the island. The push comes as cruise giant Global Ports Holding, which manages many of the top cruise ports in the Caribbean, is working on major upgrades at the cruise port in Castries. 

Allred was in Miami Beach this week for the Seatrade Cruise Global conference, the industry’ top worldwide gathering, to help promote the project, which includes upgrades to Port Castries and Pointe Seraphine, with new additions like boardwalks, a new “fishermen’s village” and a new tender dock further south in the town of Pointe Seraphine. 

“Through our collaboration with Julien, we also aim to increase awareness of the groundbreaking changes to Saint Lucia’s cruise port facilities, which will greatly enhance the growth and potential of our cruise  industry,” said Lancelot Arnold, the general manager of the Saint Lucia Cruise Port. 

The hope is that the port’s expansion and modernization will help turn Saint Lucia into more of a regional power player in cruise. 

Last year, right after her win, Alfred was officially named as a tourism ambassador for Saint Lucia, part of an historical trend of Caribbean islands working with their gold medalists to promote tourism, and one that works. 

This year, Alfred is also scheduled to do a training event at Saint Lucia’s popular BodyHoliday wellness-focused resort. 

It’s a reminder of the Caribbean’s incredible global success, as a region that always punches far above its weight on the world stage.