CC Interview: Charles Henry Fernandez, Minister of Tourism, Antigua & Barbuda

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In May 2025, Caribbean Travel Marketplace took place in St. John’s, Antigua. Connoisseur Circle’s Caribbean correspondent, Karin Hanta, sat down for a conversation with Charles Henry Fernandez. Since 2023, he has served as Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Tourism, Investment, and Economic Development.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

CC: Minister Fernandez, Condor has operating flights to Antigua since November 2024. How has it been going?

CHF: It has been going very well. The number of flights will increase this year. We are going from one to two flights a week. I took an air service agreement to parliament [in May] and got it passed to allow for Condor to fly from Frankfurt to Antigua as well as another location. This “fifth freedom” allows airlines to fly to two countries, neither of which are their home base. If we didn’t have that, Condor would have to fly directly from Frankfurt and straight back. This will open up opportunities for Condor and Antigua because two rotations are easier to manage. Right now, Condor flies to Antigua and the Dominican Republic. This opens the routes up to Antigua and somewhere else, apart from the DR.

CC: And where could somewhere else be?

CHF: It could be any of the other islands, Trinidad for example. Guyana is opening up in a big way. The point is you allow for opportunities to move visitors.

CC: How important is the German market for you on an overall scale?

CHF: All markets are important. But bearing in mind the uncertainty in the economies, the idea is to expand our marketing to different destinations. In addition, German visitors have a longer holiday period and they tend to spend more time in the country than someone from the U.S. That makes it even more important for us to see how we can capture that market.

CC: What is your unique selling point for Germany?

CHF: Our unique selling point has always been our abundance of beaches, but we’re now expanding our offerings to highlight experiences such as Antigua and Barbuda Culinary Month, which celebrates our local cuisine through initiatives such as Restaurant Week. We also host a number of vibrant festivals, including our Summer Carnival. In the winter, we host the colorful Antigua and Barbuda Art Week, and we welcome visitors to the Antigua Charter Yacht Show and several major yachting events. The goal is to build out the calendar year-round, so that no matter when you choose to visit, there’s always something happening in Antigua and Barbuda.

CC: Condor flights are seasonal. Do you envision them to go year-round?

CHF: We want them to go year-round. The opportunity to go to other islands allows for the year-round traffic.

CC: Do Caribbean airport taxes affect Condor to a lesser extent than smaller airlines?

CHF: I don’t think so. The smaller airlines are doing very well now. As a matter of fact, visitors from the Caribbean outpaced visitors from Canada, which shows that the Caribbean is an important market for us.

CC: What do you do to maintain standards for luxury travel?

CHF: Antigua and Barbuda offers a high-end product. We also have a marketing strategy geared towards the luxury market and we work very closely with our tourism partners — from our transportation providers to our restaurants, excursion agencies and hotels.

CC: Do you want to make Barbuda a luxury destination as well?

CHF: Yes, we are turning Barbuda into a low-impact destination that will be totally green by 2030. That’s all part of marketing a high-end product. People are more conscious of the environment.

CC: Do you think that luxury travelers are really toeing the line when it comes to being sustainable?

CHF: Yes, they are very conscious of sustainability when selecting a vacation destination. And they feel more comfortable when they know they are going somewhere where they are not destroying the environment. Sustainable tourism is an area to which we have given much attention in our work. We are proud of our achievements and we speak about them all the time.

CC: I know there was some resentment on the part of the Barbudan community. How were you able to negotiate that?

CHF: I can understand part of the resentment. They wanted to go to court. The point about it is: In a country of the blind, the one-eyed man is the king. I can understand that you have the opposition saying: “You are going to lose all your rights, you are going to lose everything.” And then on the other side, the government is saying: “Look, this kind of thing is not going to damage your environment. We are going to do everything to ensure it is protected. And in addition to that, you are going to have high-end employment.” So, for the first time, Barbuda has a number of Antiguans who are moving to Barbuda for work— taxi operators, tour operators and short-term rental property owners. As that happens more and more, it’s not a situation where you have major upheaval. There is a Nobu restaurant there. Nobody has ever been hurt in Barbuda. Nobody has been threatened. Yes, there is a small clique that’s concerned, and rightly so. We don’t want to lose our identity and we are very conscious of that. In tourism, we work very well with the Barbuda Council. There is some politics, of course.

CC: And you have a German ambassador-at-large, Bert Kirchner, who is attracting more film business.

CHF: Yes. He is our film ambassador. And he operates an award-winning restaurant, Papa Zouk. His son, Shabier Kirchner, is an important filmmaker.

CC: What is your vision for Antigua & Barbuda as a film destination?

CHF: It depends on what you are looking for. We try to make it as easy as possible for film crews to visit the destination and work here because, again, this is a very important aspect of marketing.

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