Rufus Ewing, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands

Like many tropical resort destinations, the Turks and Caicos islands came close to crumbling during the Great Recession. Today they are at the winning end of a thriving real estate market, boosted largely by foreign development and the steady increase in tourists who come for the magnificent beaches, world-class diving and an endless supply of conch! In fact, the islands boast the best year-over-year improvement in tourist arrivals in the entire Caribbean. They've received accolades from media giants such as CNN, Forbes, Condé Nast, Trip Advisor and the World Travel Awards.

What makes the TCI's rise so astounding is that in 2009 there was plenty to knock them down. Along with the global economic chill, came an internal scandal that led Britain to take the unprecedented step of abolishing TCI's self-rule and taking over the government. The premier at the time, Michael Misick, fled to Brazil amidst allegations of corruption that also implicated several ministers of illegally selling crown lands to developers for personal gain. Amazingly most of the money and lands were later recovered, and home rule was restored under a new Constitution after an election in 2012. The Progressive National Party (PNP) narrowly won with Rufus Ewing, a medical doctor who had held numerous appointments in the Ministry of Health, as the first Premier of TCI since the new Constitution.

Meanwhile Michael Misick was arrested and extradited from Brazil. He was released from prison on $10 million bail in early 2014. His trial is expected to last into next year.

With elections in TCI taking place every four years, Premier Ewing's position will be up for grabs in November. There are numerous contenders for the leadership, including Ewing, but the biggest surprise is that Misick has thrown his hat into the ring! Astonishingly, he has that right.

When asked about key election issues, Premier Ewing played it safe. "The economy and jobs are always the key issue," he said. "We have done well from an economic standpoint from where we were a few years ago in a short time period....We moved from a deficit budget in 2012 to now running surplus budgets and with a credit rating triple B plus investment grid stable ratings. We've managed to pay off our debts and now have one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in the Caribbean region."

All good accomplishments–under his governance, of course–but Ewing also admitted more work was needed. "The trickle down effect to the average person has not yet happened. People don't feel it in their pockets yet in terms of disposable income... We need to focus on getting more persons on the job and back to work."

Illegal immigration was another hot election topic. Premier Ewing praised the Immigration Bill that was recently passed to give longterm residents an easier path to citizenship. "We need to regularize (naturalize) those people who have been here–some for more than 30 years–and then we have to crack down hard on illegal immigration, because, with that come other problems that can impact negatively on tourism."

The implication is that employment and immigration reforms are necessary in the fight against crime. Although crime is still a rare occurrence in TCI, Premier Ewing explains, "It is something that we want to nip in the bud because there is nothing that will destroy the (tourism) industry quicker than crime." In order to maintain its reputation as one of the safest places in the Caribbean, TCI is beefing up police presence and proper lighting in places with high tourist traffic.

The efforts should sit well with Americans and Canadians who comprise 80 per cent of the foreign visitors and invest heavily in TCI's real estate and infrastructure."We encourage them to come and purchase homes because they also rent them out as vacation rentals when they are not here" says Premier Ewing. "That expands our accommodation inventory."

Besides vacation homes, Canadians own the power company, the hospital, most law firms, banks, hotels and resorts. So could annexation of Canada and TCI be in the cards? The idea has been tossed about for 99 years and on every one of Premier Ewing's visits to Canada. Still, he remains noncommittal. "We are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom and from here we would like to move towards more autonomous governance.... What we would like to see more with Canada is to continue to develop our friendship. I think there is much to be gained through a strong partnership in many areas of collaboration. Then we can see how we can move forward."

For now the government's priority goals are to stimulate growth and development on the lesser-populated islands and to attract investment to a variety of industries such as manufacturing, technology, music and the performing arts. Indirectly, everything is related to tourism, which itself requires diversification and balanced development to meet the growing demand, according to Premier Ewing.

"Although we are really focusing on hotels that are at the high-end, condo hotels and low-density villa-type resort models like Parrot Cay and Amanyara...we also intend to diversify with culture, heritage and ecotourism." Many exclusive resorts are set in native habitats with mangroves or inside nature and wildlife reserves away from Grace Bay, but that's not to say that only the posh and the pampered can enjoy nature's tranquil oases. Premier Ewing advocates that camping, in particular, would jibe well with ecotourism... but says the government needs to change the national parks ordinance first.

"We are so strict in protecting our national parks that we do not allow even a rock or stone or tree to be removed. So no development–not even a foot trail–can happen until we amend the law to allow for environmentally friendly developments like ecolodges and campsites....so that all persons can enjoy the marine parks and wetlands."

Clearly TCI is sizzling with ideas primed to take the country center stage in the Caribbean. Much of the infrastructure for large-scale luxury development is already in place. Two new airfields and fixed base operations for servicing private jets have recently been added, and there's talk of establishing marinas that can cater to luxury yachts (for those who fly in on their private jets). "Yachts do contribute a lot to the local economy," says Ewing, "because there's so much required to service them–from food, to fueling to cleaning to maintenance."

TCI is trying hard to avoid the mistakes made by other resort destinations. "We have to be careful," says Premier Ewing. "We have to be in a position that we can say the economy is good, people have jobs, the tourists have rooms to stay in....We still have an accommodation deficit, so we are not fully there yet."

Perhaps not, but with development heeding TCI's tagline "Beautiful by Nature," that day cannot be far away.