Montserrat 2026: From Potential to Performance

If 2025 revealed our gaps, then 2026 must be the year we get intentional.

Nowhere is this more urgent than in culture, festivals, tourism, skills development, and economic positioning, areas that already show promise but continue to suffer from fragmentation, underinvestment, and unclear outcomes.

Festivals Must Become Products, Not Just Traditions

Our festivals cannot continue to exist simply because they always have.

In 2026, we need to be honest about:

• Which events are consistently under-attended or unprofitable
• Which ones dilute limited financial and human resources
• Which no longer align with how people actually travel

Shorter festival periods, tighter programming, and clearer branding are not signs of failure; they are signs of maturity.

Festivals should be packaged as travel-ready products: defined dates, curated experiences, clear value, and seamless access to tickets, accommodation, and information. Fewer days done well will outperform longer events done loosely.

The move to online event ticketing in 2025 was a step in the right direction. That same thinking must now extend to the entire festival experience.

Culture Work Must Feed the Festivals By Design

One of the clearest successes of 2024 and 2025 was the growth in masquerade groups appearing at Carnival. That did not happen by accident. It is evidence that year-round cultural investment produces visible results on festival stages.

That same intentionality must now be applied across the arts.

In steel pan, for example, performance alone is not enough. Students must learn to read music and interpret scores, not memorise notes. If cultural development is to translate into opportunity, music education must prepare students to sit recognised examinations and progress to tertiary study. Without that foundation, talent remains recreational rather than professional.

Similarly, the Alliouagana Festival of the Word can be linked to creative writing at all education levels and in the community. This would encourage the publishing of local works on an annual basis.

Tourism Businesses Need Targeted Support, Not Lip Service

Tourism will not improve without direct investment in product quality.

Loan programmes must be used strategically to help small tourism businesses get online and bookable, improve accommodation aesthetics, upgrade furnishings and lighting, and raise service standards in dining and hospitality. These are not luxuries; they are baseline expectations.

Similarly, businesses showcased at events like PRIME should not stall at exhibition stage. At least one product per cycle should be supported to scale, reach export readiness, or enter regional markets. Exposure without follow-through benefits no one.

Health Education and Workforce Planning Must Go Together

We cannot continue to treat health education as an afterthought.

Preventative care, nutrition, NCD management, and elderly care are all areas where:

• Public education is urgently needed
• New jobs can be created
• Youth can be trained into meaningful roles

An ageing population is not only a challenge; it is a workforce opportunity if approached deliberately.

Jobs for the Future Must Match National Needs

Youth employment strategies in 2026 must align with where Montserrat actually needs capacity:

• Elderly and home-based care
• Agriculture and value-added products
• Tourism and hospitality management
• Software development and digital services

We already have the technology and connectivity to sell digital products and services globally. Agriculture remains essential, but it is not the only future-facing option available to us.  Intentional skills training, linked directly to global market demand, must replace vague encouragement.

Heritage as Intellectual Property and Export Value

Montserrat’s history is not just something to commemorate, it is something that can be translated into modern economic products.

The development of Rebel 1768 premium rums by RJR Spirits, built by Montserratians in the diaspora, is a powerful example. The brand honours the March 17, 1768 rebellion and transforms national memory into a contemporary, export-ready product.

What makes this significant is not just the product itself, but the approach: heritage as foundation, not decoration.

This work matters because Montserrat cannot rely solely on physical return for impact. Heritage-based products allow contribution without relocation, and economic return without erasure of identity.

In 2026, the opportunity is to encourage more ventures that treat heritage as an asset, across food and drink, publishing, education, wellness, digital media, and design, supported by policy, financing, and export pathways that recognise cultural IP as legitimate economic activity.

Biodiversity as Economic Leverage, Not Just Protection

Montserrat’s biodiversity is already counted as a win for the UK’s international commitments. That gives the island leverage that has not yet been fully utilised.

Work by Island Solutions and Scuba Montserrat, alongside the Montserrat National Trust, demonstrates what is possible through Darwin Plus funding and local grants. But this work should not be limited to a small number of organisations.

There is scope for conservation enterprises, research tourism, paid environmental fellowships, and premium eco-experiences that link protection with participation. Stewardship and economic opportunity do not have to be in conflict.

Access as Economic Infrastructure, Not a Convenience

Access remains the single biggest brake on progress.

This is not an airline-versus-ferry debate. Both are needed, and neither can be seasonal or unreliable.

If Twin Otters are operating under capacity restrictions, alternatives must be found. In the short term, ferry services may need to be subsidised, but consistency is what unlocks value. Reliable access allows:

• Businesses to plan
• Event promoters to programme confidently
• New experiences for day trippers and long-stay guests
• Residents to travel without repeated disappointment

With airfares hovering around EC$1,200, travel has become prohibitive for many. Access must be treated as economic infrastructure, not an occasional solution.

Governance, Delivery, and the Cost of Delay

Many of Montserrat’s challenges are not rooted in lack of ideas or funding, but in delivery capacity.

Projects stall not because they are impossible, but because execution is weak: unclear accountability, slow procurement, limited project management capacity.

In 2026, competence in delivery must matter as much as vision. Announcements without follow-through erode trust and waste opportunity.

Regional Voice and Strategic Maturity

2026 must also be a year in which Montserrat becomes more vocal and more deliberate within the region.

Montserrat is a full member of both CARICOM and the OECS. Size does not negate responsibility. If anything, it sharpens it. Small states have the most to lose when regional unity falters.

Recent events in the wider Caribbean have underscored how fragile the idea of the region as a Zone of Peace has become. Airspace disruptions, diplomatic fractures, and external interventions do not remain isolated. They ripple directly into tourism, aviation, insurance costs, investment confidence, and economic stability across the region.

Silence in moments that require clarity is not neutrality. It is acquiescence.

As a British Overseas Territory and a Caribbean state, Montserrat occupies a unique position that allows it to advocate for regional unity, coordinated responses, and principled diplomacy without posturing. This is not about defending individual leaders or governments. It is about defending regional sovereignty and relevance.

2026 should see Montserrat using its seat, consistently and constructively, to support stronger regional coordination on:

• Airspace and transportation security
• Tourism and aviation resilience
• Environmental protection and climate diplomacy
• External military presence and engagement
• Economic sovereignty and regional supply chains

Regional maturity requires uncomfortable conversations, strategic clarity, and a willingness to disrupt complacency. Comfort should never be confused with sovereignty.

Montserrat does not need to be loud.
But it does need to be clear, present, and principled.

In a year where access, security, climate, and global power dynamics intersect, standing together as a region is no longer optional. It is the only credible path forward.

The Opportunity in Front of Us

Montserrat does not lack talent. It lacks coordination, prioritisation, and follow-through.

The evidence from cultural programmes shows that when we invest consistently and intentionally, results follow. 2026 should be the year we apply that lesson across festivals, tourism, heritage, health, education, access, and employment.

But Montserrat does not operate in isolation.

The year ahead will demand that we think not only nationally, but regionally. Access, security, tourism resilience, climate risk, and economic stability are no longer challenges any single Caribbean territory can solve alone. The region’s strength or weakness will increasingly determine individual outcomes.

In that context, Montserrat’s progress is tied to its ability to act with clarity at home while contributing to regional alignment abroad. A stronger Montserrat strengthens the OECS. A more coordinated OECS strengthens CARICOM. And a region that speaks with purpose is harder to ignore, marginalise, or bypass.

The work ahead is therefore twofold:

• to get our own systems working properly, and
• to engage the region not as a bystander, but as a constructive partner with something to offer.

This is not about doing more.
It is about doing what matters, and doing it well.

Less scatter.
More focus.
Fewer events.
Better products.
Stronger systems.
Clearer regional purpose.

That is how Montserrat moves from potential to progress and how it claims its place, not just within the region, but within the future being shaped around it.