How does an island change its image, when it doesn’t have much of one to begin with?

That’s the challenge facing tiny St. Kitts, which happens to be the smallest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Traditionally, it’s been known as a British-tinged Big Sugar island, where one lolls on the veranda of a plantation inn, sipping sundowners after playing croquet under the Caribbean sky.

(Those inns are no longer doing so well, see my story on the venerable Golden Lemon here).

With that kind of reputation, it may be understable why those of us at USA Today laughed when we received a press release that St. Kitts’ cruise port was able to accept the monster Oasis of the Seas. That ship holds up to 6,000 people – and St. Kitts itself only has 40,000 people. That means the island’s population increases by more than 10 percent every time the ship would dock.

St. Kitts Tourism Minister Richard “Rickey” Skerritt laughed when I told him about our reaction at the paper. The press release was merely a publiciity ploy to get some much-needed ink for St. Kitts – and it worked, as many in the travel press jumped on the incongruity, he said.

 ”We’re not trying to bring the Oasis here,”  he said, adding that actually taking the ship would mean that the island would have to add some infrastructure at Port Zante. Skerritt would rather have two smaller ships with 2,000 to 3,000 passengers each than one of Royal Caribbean’s behemouths (although the port is a backup in case those ships need to change itineraries).

Besides the 500,000 cruise passengers who visit St. Kitts every year, about 100,000 tourists stay overnight on the island. Skerritt would like to see that number doulbe in the next five years – and he’s not apologetic about courting a more affluent crowd. ”We hope the people who come here have a little more depth in their pocketbook,” he said. About 60% of the visitors now are from the States, primarily due to the Marriott on the island, he said.

Ultimately, Skerritt would like to see St. Kitts enjoy the success of larger and more popular St. Lucia – only without the all-inclusive resorts that dot that island’s beaches. “We aren’t going to have huge hotels here,” he said. (Projects currently under development include St. Christophe, a residential/hotel partnership between Kiawah and the Mandarin Oriental that includes a Tom Fazio golf course and a marina, as well as Park Hyatt).

He also wants to tout the island’s diversity of activities, which range from hiking to history (Brimstone Hill is a UNESCO world heritage site) to a long strip of beach shacks where people can drink rum punch, feast on seafood and dance until the wee hours.

“In a relatively small space, you have a 4,000 foot volcano and some beach,” Skerritt said. “In 20 minutes, you can go from the rain forest to the beach. And Nevis is right there. There are not too many islands where you can go from one to another easily.”

Sounds like a lot more than tea and crumpets.

Read about how TripAdvisor reviews influencd changes at the St. Kitts Marriott (which paid for my stay) here.