Parts of The Baths National Park in Virgin Gorda that were damaged during Hurricane Irma are to be rebuilt and renovated after a contract signing on Monday. Photo: TODD VANSICKLE

Deputy Premier Dr. Kedrick Pickering has a habit of peppering his speeches with one of his favourite aphorisms: There is no tourism without the environment.

Academic research released Tuesday estimates that the Virgin Islands environment has an economic value of at least $194 million per year in tourist dollars alone, a finding that could help to draft environmental management policies. Above are The Baths and nearby beaches on Virgin Gorda. Photo: TODD VANSICKLE
It’s pretty clear that the more than 800,000 cruise ship passengers, sailors and resort guests who visit the Virgin Islands each year do so mainly because of the islands’ beauty. But what’s really the economic value of the territory’s reefs, beaches and other natural features? About $194 million annually, according to research detailed Tuesday to an audience at the J. R. O’Neal Botanic Gardens.

Esther Wolfs, a researcher with Amsterdam’s VU University, who presented the study’s results, said that the figure includes only the value of the environment to tourism. It is not the “total economic value” of the environment, which would be a much higher number. 

The overall value, she said, would also include the economic impact of other activities directly enabled by healthy reefs, beaches and mangroves, such as recreation, fishing and protection from storms.

She added that the $194 million figure is an “economic value” that puts a dollar figure on total enjoyment of a resource rather than a measurement like gross domestic product, which indicates how much consumers paid for goods and services.

The tourism study aims to gauge the value of keeping the VI’s natural resources healthy.

“The question was what is the value of nature for tourism on these islands? What is the link between nature and tourism?” she said.

 

See the May 15, 2014 edition for full coverage.

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