Premier Dr. Orlando Smith and Communications and Works Minister Mark Vanterpool extolled the benefits of government’s preferential berthing agreements with Disney and Norwegian cruise lines at a Jan. 17 press conference.
The arrangements, they said, would bring many benefits, including a stable volume of 425,000 passengers annually; Disney’s assistance with customer service and training; and NCL’s help in marketing the territory.
Those claims appear to be true, according to copies of the berthing agreements recently made public.
But the documents also show that the customer service and marketing benefits don’t come cheap: They will cost the BVI Ports Authority hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
Currently, cruise passengers visiting the territory, not the lines themselves, pay $7 in tax, a figure that soon will increase to $15, Mr. Vanterpool has said.
The increased revenue — if all 425,000 passengers pay the tax, they will generate an estimated $6.37 million per year — will fund the BVIPA’s extension of the dock; help finance the development of the “pier park” on Wickhams Cay; allow for improvements to other ports in the territory; and contribute to government operations, Mr. Vanterpool said in a Government Information Services television programme aired last Thursday.
According to the NCL agreement, some of the tax money — $2 per passenger for the first five years of the agreement and $1 per passenger for years six through 10 — will be paid to the cruise line for “rendering Norwegian marketing services.”
Meanwhile, Disney will receive an annual $225,000 “service fee” for marketing, engineering, “quality guest service culture and processes training,” and other services, according to its berthing agreement.
In the Thursday television appearance, Mr. Vanterpool said that government will work closely with both cruise lines to benefit from their hospitality expertise.
See the Feb. 13, 2014 edition for full coverage.
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