St. Kitts Scenic Railway

When my wife and I were planning our cruise to visit as many Caribbean islands as possible for our Caribbean business perspective blogs.  One of the reasons we selected a particular cruise on the Mariner of the seas was its port stop in St. Kitts, which has a scenic railway tour.  St. Kitts Scenic Railway is an 18-mile half-circle track that takes visitors along the island's East Coast.

St. Kitts scenic railway also provides refreshments like daiquiris, sodas, and water.  Also, complementary snacks were provided as well.  During the tour, we were gratefully provided services by our hostess while the announcer continually shared interesting, historical, and sometimes humorous facts and other antidotes about the island's history and current affairs.

Business Perspective: 

From a business perspective, the railway doesn’t excellent job with advertising their railway tour with Royal Caribbean.  Also, the price of the tour, which was for us well over $100, led us to believe that the tour would be top-notch.  In some aspects, the Railway Company does an excellent job of entertaining visitors with facts and discussions about the island's history and current events.  Further, the service provided by our hostess and taxi driver, which was a strategic partner, seemingly, with the railway, was above average if not excellent.

What was lacking, from a business perspective, was the organization’s inability to exploit complementary product or service sales.  At no point in time were we offer merchandise to buy, premium liquor for our drinks, or even authentic cook foods.  Not expanding services in such a manner is inevitably leaving money on the table for the company.