Community tourism in action in Saint Lucia

As part of our Conservation Traveller's Guide to Saint Lucia, travel writer Josephine Price writes about her visit to the island to see community tourism in action. From the quieter coastlines moving carefully into sustainable tourism practices to an international chocolate powerhouse supporting organic farming incentives, St Lucia is brimming with initiatives that are revitalising and future-proofing the island's offering.

Photos: Richard Hammond

“The green detoxifies, the purple is full of antioxidants and the gold is high in zinc”. I’m getting a health and nutrition lesson as I stand on the beach with Mervin Mathurin, the 48-year old sea moss farmer, who quit his office job in the hotel sector three years ago after 15 years in the business to return home to this bay and his heritage, taking stock of his crop. Sea moss, also known as Irish moss or by its scientific name Chondrus crispus, boasts 92 of the 102 minerals that the human body needs earning its recent reputation globally as a superfood. But it is no recent trend here.

“[[Sea moss farming]] started a long time ago here with my dad and just a cluster of farmers. Nothing too much”. But business is booming in this little bay on the east of the island now – it’s the island’s biggest export – and they’re inviting you in for a taste. It’s a prime example of a thriving ecosystem entwining the local and tourism ventures. The farmers – between 150 and 170 in this bay, but around 500 island-wide – do their thing and the world has cottoned on to what they’ve got. As demand grows, there’s a younger generation of farmers, male and female, getting involved which is good for both business and the community. Across the bay, a small setup called Kayak on the Bay (a family-run restaurant and kayak hire outlet) provides the opportunity for people to go and visit the sea moss farmers and learn about the practice and their product, bringing interest and income to this part of the island where the tourism product and infrastructure is still light touch and local.

Voices of Saint Lucia: Mervin Matherlin, Seamoss Farmer, Praslin

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

Later, I’m standing waist-deep in the Atlantic, among the submerged plants with Mervin. “This is one of the most beautiful bays on the island for sea moss,” he tells me. It’s picture perfect to me. And it’s accessible for local farmers too. On a low tide you can access as far as the island by foot which means it attracts the farmers who can’t or don’t swim too. On top of its accessibility credentials, it’s a low-impact, short-harvest affair. You plant, you leave, you harvest, you dry, you sell. It takes six weeks from planting to product. This is small-scale farming with a light environmental footprint but a big local money impact and a global reputation.

It’s even impacting activity across the community. Meveline Daage, the 35-year-old founder of the kayaking spot tells me: “Initially when I started Kayak on the Bay [[eight years ago]] it was to bring a sustainable, ecological watersporting activity to the bay. But it has shifted because all of the attention has focused on the sea moss farmers. All our guests come to see them. What is this sea moss? Everyone is intrigued about what it is.”

Voices of Saint Lucia: Meveline Colmet Daage, Kayak on the Bay

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

And now the purpose of the tours has shifted and expanded to incorporate it. Local fishermen provide the daily catch, lunch is cooked by Meveline’s family (she urged her parents to move back home from Texas, USA to pitch in with the family business) at her waterside restaurant before heading out to meet the sea moss farmers, learn more about the intriguing product and visit nearby Praslin Island. It’s a symbiotic relationship that engages and feeds the community. This is an example of an impactful setup that could be modeled across the island.

As one of the most tourism-dependent economies in the world, the Caribbean is a delicate proposition. Faced with rising temperatures and tides impacting coastlines, fishing industries and seaweed invasions, for example, there’s an urgency to do things with a positive impact to protect and preserve the string of islands. With more visitors than ever before and tourism development on an upward trajectory, I’m here in the eastern Caribbean island nation of St Lucia to see just how the West Indies is looking after their patch. Protecting the future is a project, but it’s also an invitation. Their island-wide warm welcomes and gracious hosting should almost come with a disclaimer: come in and get involved. And thanks to community tourism initiatives, it’s easy to. There are no alarming calls to arms here, but a gentle invitation to interact and get involved.

The community tourism initiatives I experience across the island are propelled by local characters who realise what a good offering they’ve got and want to share it with the world. That’s certainly the case with Stephan at the St Lucia Bamboo Rafting project. This 22-year-old energetic soul is the supervisor here and my guide for the experience. He grew up on a nearby tributary of the Roseau River, which was once a lifeline for the producers upstream: the island’s biggest banana plantations would send their crops down on bamboo rafts to be picked up for export from the beach.

It was also where Stephan played, messing about on the river with friends. And today, locals and tourists are taken down on similar bamboo rafts built by local boys. It only takes them a couple of hours to build a raft and the bamboo is in such surplus that it remains a low-impact activity. This initiative doesn’t change the landscape, coastline or the river but it does introduce visitors to one of the natural lifelines of the island and provides the local community with another way to earn money from the visitors.

Voices of Saint Lucia: Stephan Charlie, Bamboo rafting guide

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

These tours have been running for three years now and it’s a gentle way to catch a glimpse of life on the water. We make our way downstream past fruiting almond trees, loud moorhens and rocky cliffs pockmarked with honey bee hives to Roseau Beach. It may be just round the bay from the hotels and restaurants of the prestigious marina at Marigot Bay but here there’s nothing more than a shack and piles of sand from government-approved sand-mining ventures. Kids dive into the water from surplus rafts, probably just like Stephan did in his day. Maybe these kids will be the ones launching the next new venture in years to come.

Longevity is key to such projects, the act of giving ideas time to bed down and have an impact. Next up, I’m exploring Emerald Farm with Elijah Jules, the 43-year-old executive sous chef at the Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts. The farm has been running here for 18 years and he’s been with the resorts for 16 years. He’s having a good time, especially with his creations, and it’s infectious.

Voices of Saint Lucia: Elijah Jules, Executive Sous Chef, Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

He feeds me dish after dish, adorned with herbs and ingredients from the garden, bursting with flavour and colour. A tomato gazpacho that I’m still thinking about. Fat buttery curried prawns with coconut-milk-braised green banana. Seared, herb-crusted tuna atop a shaved cucumber and grapefruit salad. This experience is available to hotel guests, connecting them with the land as well as the hotel’s community outreach and organic farming initiatives.

The organic farm located in the Soufrière Hills is all about the farm-to-table experience as guests find out more about local ingredients and the provenance of the dishes onsite but it goes beyond that, enabling the resort to have a conversation and a relationship with local farmers, too.

“We have the space to plant [and grow] everything we want to but we plant what the locals don’t plant,” Eli tells me. “And if we have to plant what they don’t plant, then don’t plant a lot.”

Slightly further south, in the inland valley of the Pitons, Project Chocolat is another St Lucian gem with a far-reaching impact. The estate behind the UK powerhouse, Hotel Chocolat, has been pioneering sustainable and organic farming changes on the island since they launched operations here in 1994. With this vast 140-acre site, they could plant all their own crops and function independently but instead they work in collaboration with the local farmers.

“The core purpose of being here was to revitalise cocoa as an industry on the island. They started with a handful of farmers in this area and they set up a programme called Island Growers where they would grow and heavily subsidise cocoa seedlings, give them to farmers and we would guarantee to buy it at a premium price,” the UK-born CEO, Emma Peacock explains.

Voices of Saint Lucia: Emma Peacock, CEO Saint Lucia, Hotel Chocolat

Interview filmed by Richard Hammond

It’s this style of gentle hand-holding from the island’s custodians that sets a tone and leads me through St Lucia, educating and empowering me – as they hope to with more and more visitors. There are plans to launch new tours and experiences later in 2025 through the tourism agency’s sister organisation, the Community Tourism Agency.

And as Meveline at Kayak on the Bay says community involvement is key. “My hope for Praslin Bay is to see a lot more sustainable tourism practices being picked up,” she comments on the nascent industry in her corner of the island. And from the looks of it, it looks positive. The Caribbean – and St Lucia – may have its fair share of resorts but the future looks set to get more sustainable by putting the community first.

Where to stay

Anse Chastanet might as well be a byword for luxurious views of the Pitons on St Lucia. This resort hotel ticks the beachfront box as well as offering indulgent hillside accommodation and immersive experiences for guests. But its work goes beyond the resort. Projects include the Soufriere Foundation (a non-government organisation for the benefit of the neighbouring community), supporting coral restoration with nurseries and education as well as wider projects to help conservation, sustainable livelihoods on the island and marine health.

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Disclosure: Josephine Price was a guest of Anse Chastanet and Saint Lucia Tourism Authority. She had full editorial control of this review, which has been written in her own words based on her experience of visiting Saint Lucia in 2025. All opinions are the authors’ own.