Kirk Freeport is a locally owned retailer in two of the Cayman Islands - Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac. Many islands have similar retailers that own many of the stores on a specific Island but there is one unique thing about Kirk Freeport. The owner, Eldon Kirkconnell, is a local who is striving to keep businesses local to help the economy. He has helped pass a law to keep 55% of businesses locally owned, keeping more of the tourists money on the island. The company owns 22 stores on both of the islands and sells such things as watches, jewelry, and several other expensive gifts. They do a lot to give back to the community and strive to keep the locals involved.
Going on a cruise or flying in and staying on the Island, you will see "Kirk Freeport" on the majority of the businesses in the main tourist shopping centers as well as the local shopping markets. For the most part, everything spent at these Kirk Freeport shops stay in the local community so do what you can to keep it local by focusing your purchases at these marked shops. Before your trip, visit their website at www.kirkfreeport.net to learn about their shops and involvement with the Islands.
Beyond helping the economy, the true purpose of the Ecolodge is to allow visitors to see the beauty of the forest meeting the ocean without any serious damage to any of the surrounding natural habitat. To learn more about the Kwanari Ecolodge and the local Kalinago people of Dominica, visit the article on the ecotourism website at: https://www.ecotourism.org/news/kwanari-ecolodge-dominica-will-showcase-new-forest-caribbean-architecture.
It's important to support these organizations so we can help conserve these largely traveled environments. As travelers, we have been given the tools, resources, and options to help the places we want to visit. It is up to us to become informed and make the decision to use what we have been given to do what we can to support tourist communities. Hopefully by making these choices we can come back to an unchanged environment year after year and keep it that way for our children and friends.