By NAN Business Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. May 13, 2026: US-born, YouTube superstar IShowSpeed has wrapped up an ambitious 15-country tour of the Caribbean, generating more than more 40 million views across his livestreams and delivering what could amount to millions of dollars in earned media value for the region. IShowSpeed’s Caribbean tour generated enormous visibility, but questions remain about view authenticity and whether youthful audiences will convert into future tourism dollars.

The 20-year-old creator, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr., visited destinations across the Caribbean over several weeks, streaming his experiences live to a massive global audience of predominantly Gen Z viewers with sponsor Expedia. According to viewership data compiled from the livestreams, the tour generated more than 47 million views in total, not including additional exposure from social media clips, news coverage, and reposts.

Caribbean Tour View Counts

Dominican Republic – 7.0 million views

Dominica, Guadeloupe and St. Kitts – 6.8 million views

Trinidad and Tobago – 4.9 million views

St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia – 4.9 million views

Grenada – 4.3 million views

Jamaica – 3.4 million views

Antigua and Barbuda – 3.1 million views

Barbados – 3.1 million views

Puerto Rico – 2.8 million views

Bahamas – 2.5 million views

U.S. Virgin Islands – 2.5 million views

Saint Martin/Sint Maarten – 1.9 million views

Even using the conservative benchmark of 40 million views, tourism and marketing analysts say the equivalent paid media value could range from approximately $800,000 to more than $2 million, depending on advertising platform, targeting, and production costs.

Connected TV advertising, which often costs $20 to $30 per 1,000 impressions, would place the value of 40 million impressions at roughly $800,000 to $1.2 million. Traditional national television campaigns could cost significantly more.

Why The Exposure Matters

Unlike traditional advertising, IShowSpeed’s content offers authentic, real-time engagement with younger travelers. His streams featured direct interactions with residents, cultural experiences, local attractions, and unscripted moments that showcased Caribbean destinations to a digitally native audience.

That kind of exposure is particularly valuable as Caribbean tourism authorities increasingly seek to reach younger travelers who discover destinations through influencers, YouTube, TikTok, and social media rather than traditional television campaigns.

A New Model For Tourism Promotion

The success of the tour highlights the growing influence of content creators in shaping travel trends and destination awareness. For many Caribbean nations, attracting a global creator with IShowSpeed’s reach can provide significant international visibility at a fraction of the cost of conventional ad campaigns.

Whether measured in view counts or earned media value, the tour underscores how digital creators are becoming powerful partners in tourism marketing.

While the exposure was significant, questions remain about how much of that attention will translate into actual visitor spending. IShowSpeed’s audience is largely composed of tweens, teens, and young adults, many of whom may not yet have the resources to travel. Some online critics have also questioned whether the 7 million views recorded for the Dominican Republic stream were inflated by bots, although those claims have not been independently verified.

By News Americas Business News Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. May 1, 2026:  When Felicia J. Persaud left Georgetown, Guyana, in 1996 to build a new life in the United States, she carried with her something no immigration officer could stamp out – an unwavering belief that the Caribbean deserved better access to the global economy.

Nearly three decades later, that belief has become a platform, a portfolio of companies, and now, a Nasdaq graduation.

On April 30, 2026, Persaud – founder and CEO of ICN Group and the newly launched AI Capital Exchange – graduated with honors from the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s Milestone Circles program, an intensive 12-week initiative that has supported over 6,300 entrepreneurs since its founding five years ago.

“This program pushed me into answering my why, and my why remains solving the problem of lack of access to capital in emerging markets like the Caribbean and Latin America,” Persaud said.

Persaud was part of Cohort Group 32: Circles 513, 514 & 515, alongside 28 fellow entrepreneurs from across the United States. The program, run by the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center – which has accelerated resilient growth for under-resourced founders worldwide since 2015 – focuses on helping founders build, scale, and lead with purpose.

Building a Bridge to $5.7 Trillion

During the 12-week program, Persaud used the mentorship and structure to sharpen her investor pitch for AI Capital Exchange – a platform she built herself, as a non-technical founder, in just over four months, using artificial intelligence.

The platform is already live. AI Capital Exchange pre-qualifies borrowers and connects them to institutional investors, lenders, and investment agencies globally. To date, it has filtered over $200 million in deals – what Persaud calls “whale filtering” – serving as a bridge to the U.S. $5.7 trillion capital market.

It is, by her own description, the world’s first AI-powered debt capital platform of its kind.

Persaud is now seeking a minimum seed round of USD $500,000 to fuel the platform’s next phase of growth. The platform has already gained international recognition, having been accepted into the HICool competition after participating in the India AI Challenge in January 2026.

Paying It Forward to the Caribbean

True to her roots as an advocate for Caribbean communities, Persaud is not keeping the lessons of Nasdaq’s Milestone Circles to herself.

In conjunction with her graduation, she is releasing a free list of Caribbean accelerators currently open for Caribbean entrepreneurs – available at investcaribbeannow.com/caribbean-accelerators.

“I am now paying it forward,” she said.

Decade Plus Journey Built On The Caribbean

Persaud’s journey from Georgetown to Nasdaq is the kind of immigrant story that defines Caribbean America.

A former journalist and advocate, she went on to found NewsAmericasNow.com – the Caribbean diaspora’s leading daily news source- along with CaribPR Wire, Hard Beat Communications, and Invest Caribbean, all under her ICN Group umbrella.

She is listed in the U.S. State Department Speakers Database as a Caribbean expert, has been quoted by AP, CNN, BBC, the New York Times, Reuters, the Washington Post, Forbes, and dozens of other global outlets, and holds a weekly immigration column in the New York Amsterdam News – one of America’s oldest African American newspapers.

She is also the founder of the Hard to Beat podcast.

For a woman who arrived in the United States 30 years ago with a journalist’s instinct and an entrepreneur’s hunger, the Nasdaq milestone is not an endpoint. It is, as her platform suggests, a pre-qualification for what comes next. Caribbean entrepreneurs can access the free Caribbean accelerator list at investcaribbeannow.com/caribbean-accelerators. Learn more about AI Capital Exchange at aicapitalexchange.c

By NAN Business Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. April 24, 2026: The upcoming AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF2026) is being positioned as a key platform to deepen trade and investment ties between Africa and the Caribbean – but a persistent challenge remains: project readiness.

Afreximbank has signed a hosting agreement with the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis for the fifth edition of the forum, scheduled for July 29–31, 2026 in Basseterre. The event is expected to bring together governments, investors, development finance institutions, and private sector leaders from across both regions.

ACTIF has emerged as a leading platform for mobilizing capital and advancing Africa–Caribbean economic cooperation. The 2025 edition resulted in five Caribbean deals totaling approximately US$291 million, while Afreximbank has approved more than US$700 million in financing across CARICOM markets in recent years.

The 2026 forum is expected to focus on identifying priority projects and accelerating execution across sectors including infrastructure, tourism, energy, and trade.

But while opportunity is expanding, access to capital is not automatic. Across the Caribbean, many projects continue to face challenges in securing financing – not due to lack of investor interest, but due to gaps in structure, financial clarity, and overall investment readiness.

Invest Caribbean CEO Felicia J. Persaud noted that “the challenge is not just access to capital – it is qualification.”

Many otherwise promising projects fail to secure funding due to gaps in financial clarity, collateral structures, and execution planning, she added.

Still others struggle to understand the differences between debt and equity financing, or the stages of capital – from pre-seed to Series A – often approaching investors without the level of structure or documentation required to support multi-million-dollar raises.

To put that into perspective, institutional lenders like Afreximbank require far more than an idea or concept. Financing consideration typically depends on a fully developed project package – including feasibility studies, ownership and governance structures, land title and regulatory approvals, detailed financial models, and clearly defined debt and equity frameworks.

Projects must also demonstrate market demand, operational readiness, environmental compliance, and realistic revenue projections backed by data.

As global institutions like Afreximbank expand their footprint in the region, the demand for bankable, well-structured projects is increasing – but the supply of investment-ready opportunities remains limited. Without that alignment, opportunities risk remaining announcements rather than funded deals, Persaud said.

ACTIF2026 is expected to play a critical role in strengthening Africa–Caribbean partnerships and advancing the concept of “Global Africa,” but translating interest into actual investment will depend heavily on the quality and readiness of projects presented.

Assess your project’s funding readiness through Invest Caribbean and AI Capital Exchange

RELATED: US Travel Warning Issued For Trinidad and Tobago

News Americas, NASSAU, Bahamas, Tues. April 21, 2026: Tensions between the United States and China are intensifying in the Caribbean, with The Bahamas emerging at the center of a growing geopolitical divide over infrastructure, investment, and national sovereignty.

The latest flashpoint comes as the U.S. Department of State moves to expand American investment in Caribbean infrastructure, including a $10 million initiative to support resilient port development across the region. At the same time, U.S. officials have raised concerns over The Bahamas’ decision to move forward with a major hospital project financed through a loan agreement with China’s Export-Import Bank.

U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas Herschel Walker publicly questioned the terms of the deal on Sunday, warning that placing financing under Chinese law and jurisdiction on Bahamian soil could have implications for national sovereignty.

“We are disappointed to see this project move forward so quickly when fundamental concerns about the terms of the deal remain unaddressed,” Walker said. He added that the United States remains willing to assist The Bahamas in securing alternative financing options that align with international standards and reduce long-term risks.

The Bahamas government, however, has defended its decision, stating that it engaged with the United States over a three-year period in search of financing but did not receive a proposal that met the scale or urgency required for the project. Officials emphasized that the $195 million agreement with China is intended to address critical healthcare needs, including the construction of a 200-bed hospital in New Providence. The Bahamas and China signed a framework agreement in July 2025 for a new specialty hospital in New Providence, with the project primarily funded by a US$195 million loan from the Chinese Export-Import (EXIM) Bank. China Railway Construction Company is the main contractor for the project, with a planned 50/50 labor split between Chinese and Bahamian workers. 

China has also pushed back against U.S. concerns, describing the project in February as a “livelihood initiative” designed to improve public health and well-being in The Bahamas, while rejecting suggestions of geopolitical influence. The Chinese Embassy stated that its cooperation with The Bahamas is based on mutual respect and does not target any third party.

The dispute highlights a broader competition between the United States and China for influence in the Caribbean, particularly in key sectors such as infrastructure, energy, and security.

Adding to the regional focus, the U.S. State Department yesterday, April 20th, convened a roundtable with Caribbean port authorities and maritime industry leaders to strengthen trade, tourism, and infrastructure resilience through increased private-sector investment. During the roundtable, the State Department announced plans to provide $10 million in programming to support resilient Caribbean port infrastructure through the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, according to a statement last night.  “The United States looks forward to continued collaboration with Caribbean partners and further strengthening our economic ties across our region,” the statement added.

For Caribbean nations, the developments underscore the delicate balance between securing critical development financing and maintaining sovereignty amid competing global interests. As both global powers deepen their engagement in the region, countries like The Bahamas are increasingly navigating complex decisions that could shape their economic and strategic future.

RELATED: US Travel Warning Issued For Trinidad and Tobago

By NAN Business Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. April 13, 2026: A global energy shock triggered by the war in the Middle East and no US-Iran peace deal is now driving Caribbean gas prices higher and raising concerns about transportation, travel, and the broader cost of living.

The price hike stems from disruptions to the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain, including reported damage to infrastructure in Qatar, a key global exporter. The fallout has flipped energy markets from expected oversupply to shortages, pushing prices up by nearly 80 percent.

For Caribbean nations heavily dependent on imported fuel, the impact is immediate and severe. Fuel prices across the region are now above $5 per gallon in most countries, with some territories exceeding $7, according to the latest data.

Belize and Barbados currently have the highest prices, at $7.27 and $7.02 per gallon respectively. Other countries facing steep costs include Haiti at $5.53, the Bahamas at $5.54, and Jamaica at $5.14.

Even traditionally lower-cost markets are feeling the pressure. Trinidad and Tobago stands at $4.34, while Suriname is at $4.88 and Cuba at $4.90.

Oil rich Guyana remains the only Caribbean nation where fuel prices are below $4, with consumers paying approximately $3.51 per gallon, reflecting its status as an oil-producing country.

Transport Systems Under Pressure

The surge is already disrupting transportation systems. In St. Kitts and Nevis, fuel prices have reached EC $19.60 per gallon or USD 5.47, pushing the country toward a potential $20 threshold. Ferry operators are beginning to shut down services as operating costs climb.

The MV Mark Twain has announced a temporary suspension of operations from April 15th, joining other vessels already halting service. Operators cite a 35 percent increase in fuel costs as unsustainable. Public frustration is rising as transport options shrink and prices climb.

Air Travel Set To Get More Expensive

The aviation sector is also feeling the strain. Regional carrier, Caribbean Airlines, has already introduced a fuel surcharge of $15 to $25 on tickets purchased from April 10 onward. The move follows a dramatic surge in global jet fuel prices, which have nearly doubled in recent weeks.

Data from the International Air Transport Association shows jet fuel prices rising to $195.19 per barrel, up 96.4 percent from the previous month. Fuel now accounts for about 50 percent of airline operating costs. Industry experts warn that higher ticket prices are inevitable as airlines attempt to offset rising expenses.

Demand Falling As Prices Rise

Globally, high prices are already beginning to reduce demand. Asian markets are cutting LNG imports, with some countries reverting to coal, raising concerns about long-term energy transitions.

For the Caribbean, however, limited alternatives mean consumers and governments have few options but to absorb the rising costs. Some governments, including those in Antigua and the Bahamas, have introduced relief measures such as subsidies and tax adjustments. Others have yet to respond, leaving citizens to bear the full impact.

Growing Economic Pressure

The rising cost of fuel is expected to ripple across Caribbean economies, increasing transportation costs, raising food prices, and putting additional strain on households. As global energy markets remain volatile, the region faces continued uncertainty in the months ahead.

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