St. Vincent allows tourists to get married within 24 hours

The St Vincent and the Grenadines Parliament has given the green light to amend the country’s marriage act as the government moves to take advantage of a growing market for wedding destinations

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves told legislators that his administration had moved to amend the Marriage Act to facilitate the process of people getting married in one day, joining other Caribbean destinations including St. Lucia, Antigua, and Grenada.

“Compared to several other countries, we make this matter far too difficult,” Gonsalves said, noting that as St Vincent and the Grenadines is a multi-island state, “there is too much centralization in the city of Kingstown and with the Registrar General and the number of days required are just too many for many persons prior to entering into marriage.”

Gonsalves said if the island is to take advantage of a growing market for wedding destinations, it is important that the government puts the institutional arrangements in place.

“The hoteliers, the Ministry of Tourism, the Tourism Authority have been calling for some changes and we have made some, and the small ones, on the face of it which we are doing today to the regulations, are important and they may well be others,” Gonsalves said, adding that the amendment would not have an impact “on Vincentians, who want to get married.

“Because people who want to get married here will tend to plan their business in advance. So, these changes are really to facilitate those who would wish to come to the destination to get married and move on, as happens in many countries in the Caribbean and the world.”

Prime Minister Gonsalves said prior to the amendment, the law required a declaration by the applicants that they had been resident for at least three days prior to the date of the application for the marriage license.

“I don’t think that this should be particularly controversial and wherever we have to make any further amendments to facilitate this particular process so that we can get an increased part of the business, in our beautiful islands,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said.

St Vincent's Tourism Minister Carlos James supported the amendment, telling legislators that the Attorney General Chambers will bring supporting marriage delegation of powers notice.

This will allow for the governor general, who grants marriage licenses under Section 23 of the Marriage Act, to be able to delegate this particular power to district officers and revenue officers in the Grenadines.

“It has proven to be a bit inconvenient to those persons who are coming to our destination and who may have a preference for the Grenadines as a particular choice for their destination weddings,” James said, adding that the island had been a leading wedding destination.

“We have fallen off for a number of years primarily because of these challenges that persons would incur when they come to St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said, noting that globally, destination weddings are a US$16 billion sector.

“It’s a huge, huge market. And we’re talking over 25 percent of Americans travel for destination weddings, and 2.4 million weddings are performed,” James said.

Opposition Leader, Dr. Godwin Friday, in supporting the amendment, said “I have listened to the description and the promises that this seemingly very small amendment may have for the tourism sector, that is, the specific niche market of wedding destinations tourism.”

He said he remains supportive of the initiative that could lead to more visitors coming.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion, necessarily, that the amendment would bring more people here because everybody else is upping their game and trying to provide more services and make things more user friendly and easier to access and so forth.”

CMC/