The island of Martinique is playing host to a major new global arts festival this week: the International Festival of Performance Art.

The event is being held through April 22 at the Hotel Imperatrice in Fort de France.

It’s being directed by Annabel Gueredrat and Henri Tauliaut, with the aim of connecting performers, art critics, academics, international curators and art communities of Martinique, the Caribbean basin, the Americas and Europe.

Performance artist Ayana Evans.

It’s the first-ever edition of the festival, with “body-based” performance practices by both French and international artists.

More importantly — it’s the first-ever international art festival on Martinique, one of the Caribbean’s hubs for art.

For more information, visit Art Incidence.

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The Caribbean’s newest dive site is one of the only ships to survive the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor.

It’s called the Kodiak Queen, and it’s just been sunk in the heart of the British Virgin Islands near Necker Island by a group of conservationists led by Sir Richard Branson.

After reaching the ocean floor, the ship will now be a permanent eco-friendly underwater art installation known as the BVI Art Reef.

The installation is headlined by a huge art piece, a giant kraken, along with a host of other sculptures set inside the heart of the old ship.

The Kodiak Queen during its heyday.

The aim of the project is to help draw attention to major global environmental issues, from climate change to protecting coral reefs to the rehabilitation of vulnerable marine species.

“I’m already looking forward to returning for a dive once it has become a thriving marine habitat,” Branson wrote in his personal blog on Virgin.com. “Everything from corals to sea sponges, sharks and turtles will live on, in and around the wreck as it helps rehabilitate heavily over-fished marine populations.”

The project was a joint effort including the government of the British Virgin Islands, Unite BVI, Maverick1000, Secret Samurai Productions, Beneath the Waves, Commercial Dive Services and the Association of Reef Keepers.

Branson has long been a proponent of conservation as a means of economic growth, and it’s hoped that this latest venture will become a popular Caribbean diving destination.

For more information visit the BVI Art Reef.

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Tour company Chukka Caribbean Adventures is upgrading its famous Good Hope property in Falmouth, Jamaica.

The company will be embarking on a $4 million enhancement project.

“The Chukka Good Hope property is the kind of facility that will certainly be a pull factor in bringing more visitors to the island,” said Paul Pennicook, Jamaica’s Director of Tourism. “I was accompanied by some key members of the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association on a visit to the property and we were all blown away. It is truly another piece of jewellery in Chukka’s growing collection.”

The Good Hope tour includes a zip line canopy, ATV and dune buggy adventures, jungle river tubing and kayaking and Appleton Rum tastings, along with a great house tour and a bird aviary, all set across 17 buildings.

“The addition of the Adventure Falls has created an even more family fun atmosphere, which features a six pool terraced playground, a 50-foot cascading waterfall, and a 300-foot slide that spills into a 14,000 square feet pool,” said John Byles, CEO of Chukka Caribbean Adventures.

“There is a wow factor on arrival here at the facility, which is very difficult if not impossible to duplicate. There is also something for everyone to gravitate towards. We believe in giving our guests a wide variety of options where they will always remember this experience. Whenever we put a memory into something, it usually last for a lifetime,” he said.

Chukka offers 60 tours in Belize, Jamaica and Turks and Caicos.

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Another Hollywood production is coming to Puerto Rico.

The new John Travolta-led film, Speed Kills, will be filming on the island, according to Governor Ricardo Rossello.

Speed Kills is the story of Don Aronow, a designer, runner and manufacturer of high-speed cigarette boats that who had an immeasurable influence on nautical design.

“The Puerto Rican film industry, its human talent, its technicians, production staff and all its members have demonstrated their commitment, professionalism and dedication in recent years,” Rossello said. “Thanks to them, film production has unquestionably become one of the main engines with the most potential for economic development in Puerto Rico. As a result of all this effort, today I am pleased to announce the start of production on Speed Kills Island, starring Oscar nominee John Travolta.”

The film, directed by John Luessenhop, will have a budget of around $22 million and will create 633 direct jobs on the island with a Puerto Rican co-production.

“We want highly-trained Puerto Rican entrepreneurs to collaborate with this multi-million dollar production. We are confident that the development and success of these will create the confidence to reinvest in the film industry itself,” the governor said. “In addition, being part of the United States undoubtedly positions us to have the confidence of Hollywood and international productions.”

Puerto Rico has become the Caribbean’s largest film and television production hubs in recent years, attracting production from TV series like NBC’s Crossbones and Homeland and films like the Ben Affleck-led Runner Runner.

“We have taken affirmative steps to make Puerto Rico an investment destination for the film industry. With the Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), Enterprise Puerto Rico, an interactive asset map, and an incentive code that promotes productivity, value added is created for these incentives to have a return on investment For the People of Puerto Rico and generate good jobs in a sustainable way,” said Manuel Laboy, Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce..

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Tourism arrivals are showing steady growth in Belize for the first quarter of 2017 after a very strong 2016, according to the latest numbers from the country’s tourist board.

The overnight tourism sector continued on a positive trajectory in 2017, with increases in each of the first three months of the year, leading to an overall 2.7 percent at the end of March 2017.

The month of March is traditionally the height of the island’s tourism season.

In March of 2016, there was a record number of tourist arrivals totaling over 43,000 visitors.

However, this record was surpassed in March 2017, with over 44,400 tourist visitors, making it the highest number of tourist arrivals ever recorded in a single month.

An overall increase of 8.7 percent in cruise passenger arrivals was recorded for the first three months of 2017.

With an increase of 24.2 percent and 22.7 percent in January and February 2017 respectively, along with a short decline of 13.1 percent in March 2017, the total number of cruise ship passengers registered in the first quarter of 2017 surpassed that of 2016.

— Dana Niland, CJ Contributor

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