The Virgin Islands is being left behind by tourism rivals like St. Thomas due to government complacency, opposition member Myron Walywn warned recently in the House of Assembly.
To tackle the problem, he said, an urgent effort is needed to boost land-based overnight visitors to energise the local economy.
Mr. Walwyn (R-D6) criticised the state of roads and infrastructure in the VI as he called for action in areas like hotel building to bring more land-based tourists to complement cruise ship and yacht passengers.
“We have to look at the wider economy and what we can do better to generate more income — particularly with the tourism industry,” Mr. Walwyn told the HOA during discussions on the financial services industry.
He said the travel industry goes to the “heart and soul” of the VI, but it is not as buoyant as the government makes out.
“It is one thing for the government to be able to say we are collecting monies, we are on budget in terms of our collections, but it is another thing to say whether or not the majority of that money is passing through the economy and benefiting businesses,” he said. “That is where we are having a grave, grave difficulty.”
Off-season
Mr. Walwyn also said the tourism sector is not performing as well as other Caribbean destinations in the off-season.
“We are now in July, and from around May/June things started to thin out,” he said. “The other day, I took a little trip across to St. Thomas, and the amount of tourists that I saw in St. Thomas over this last weekend — I said to myself, ‘What is going on with us in the BVI?’”
He added that the visit reminded him of a statement made by the former premier during the Covid-19 pandemic to reassure the public that tourists would eventually return.
“When I heard that, I said to myself that the worst thing we can do is take our guests for granted,” Mr. Walwyn said.
“People have a choice with travel. They don’t have to come to the BVI. If we are going to develop a posture where we think that we can impose all sorts of things on people, and people have to come to Tortola, to Virgin Gorda, I think that we are sadly mistaken.”
Small businesses
Mr. Walwyn added that current tourism trends do not release “dollar distribution” to small businesses.
“Many of the overnight visitor numbers come from people who are on the boats, on the yachts, and they just follow their flow,” he said. “So that sort of a trickle-down that you are looking for on land to the local restaurants and the car rental agencies — you are not getting that.”
In that regard, he added, several neighbouring islands are powering ahead of the VI.
“When you look at Dominica, St. Kitts, Anguilla, Bermuda and even St. Vincent, with those properties they are bringing on stream, the new hotels: They give the local businesses the boost they need,” he said. “You have to shore up the land tourism; the small, intimate villas; the hotels. That is how you stimulate the economy.”
He also argued that serious injections of money are needed to improve roads and other infrastructure in the territory.
“Look at the infrastructure of the country — potholes,” he said. “This morning my district is out of water.”
‘Not balanced’
Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley said the remarks were “not balanced” and needed to be addressed at another time as HOA members were meant to be discussing financial services when the issue was raised.
However, he added that the territory’s first quarter tourism numbers were “the best in the history” of the VI.
“Everything is up: cruise, overnight,” he said.
Tourism strategy
The premier has previously stated that a long delayed new national tourism strategy will be launched by the end of the year.
However, public consultations on the strategy have not begun.