Gov’t to explore tourism risk mitigation — Premier
The government has announced plans to address the risks associated with tourism as it works to enhance the sector’s contributions to the economy.
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley revealed this during his first press conference of 2025, highlighting overcrowding as a key challenge.
“Cruise tourism is an important part of our economy,” he explained. “We’ve had some conversations about the challenges of overcrowding.”
According to the Premier, hundreds of taxi drivers, vendors, and businesses depend on it, and the Port Authority benefits financially from the $15 head tax on over 760,000 passengers. However, he warned that overcrowding at popular locations could diminish the visitor experience if not properly managed.
Dr Wheatley explained that the government plans to convene stakeholders to develop solutions for evenly distributing tourists across the territory. He added that this discussion will allow stakeholders to ensure that none of the beaches exceed their carrying capacity.
Improving cultural tourism offerings is also a priority. The Premier said the government is focused on cultivating cultural experiences catering to cruise passengers and overnight visitors. “We want to be able to upgrade our offerings and improve our product, and part of what we want to strengthen is getting our cultural product up to par,” he asserted.
The BVI’s beautification efforts are another pillar of this plan. The Junior Minister for Tourism, Luce Hodge Smith, will lead initiatives to keep the territory “clean and pristine,” according to the Premier. Enhancing transportation is also on the agenda, with plans to advance the West End Ferry Terminal project and airport development.
The Premier’s disclosure follows the recently concluded National Tourism Summit at the Peter Island Resort. The event brought together 200 industry stakeholders to explore ways to enhance the visitor experience. Discussions covered sustainability, digital transformation, and marketing strategies to attract high-value visitors.
Dr Wheatley acknowledged that the BVI’s tourism numbers have rebounded to pre-2017 hurricane levels. In 2024, the territory welcomed over 1.1 million visitors, surpassing its 2016 record. Cruise arrivals reached 768,293, a 6.8% increase from 2023, while day-tripper numbers hit a historic high of 17,970. Overnight visitors also saw a notable rise of 16.7%.
The Premier credited this growth to the resilience of the tourism sector and strong partnerships. However, he cautioned that sustaining these gains requires addressing existing challenges.
The Premier noted that the government expects to release the National Tourism Policy and Plan by mid-2025.
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Yea, this guy has no idea what’s going on!
The BVI tourism strategy seems to be – memorize all the tourism buzz words and then barf them up whenever you get in front of a microphone.
We clearly need some outside help here! Please hire some professionals and quit this amateur hour stupidness.
They are so not ready. They need to spend some money and hire an outside PROFESSIONAL AGENCY to show and teach them how it is supposed to be done. We have a bunch of non thinking individuals in the BVI who seem to think they know it all.
They always seem to think that professional outsiders want to tell them what to do. The professionals get paid big bucks to offer their expertise.
The very language of the government’s announcement speaks volumes about how the BVI has lost its way since the innocent days of YES. WE’RE DIFFERENT.
Stakeholders; Carrying Capacity; Cultivating Cultural Experiences; Upgrade our Offerings; Getting our Cultural Product up to Par; Digital Transformation; Beautification, etc.
The end result is that we now have to put right and beautify that which was good and beautiful before we made a mess of it.
Only the people that can’t find a way to make money for themselves off the cruise ships are complaining. Give them a spot at the pier park and watch their tone change.
“…ensure that none of the beaches exceed their carrying capacity…”
Who gets to decide the capacity?
I keep asking this. Is the number of cruise ship passengers quoted the ACTUAL NUMBER or the quoted capacity?
Stop putting all the focus on just the cruise ships. Put more focus on other things that will attract the tourist industry. For example, why not build a tram that will take the tourist up the hillside to the top of sage mountain with a nice concession area. However, I am not talking about any sub par concession area like the the sardine can that was built up Trellis bay.
…just going further down the cruise ship rabbit hole.
“Bans, Fees, Taxes. Can Anything Stop Overtourism.” See article in today’s New York Times. Tourist hotspots can’t cope with the crowds. Steps need to be taken now to ensure that the BVI tourism product is developed in a meaningful way. More is not always better.
More and more cruise ships driving away the tourists who are actually spend money hiring boats, cars, renting rooms and eating in our restaurants. All these cruise ship people just being a burden on the infrastructure and not spending money but trying to haggle in stores and bars a $ 5.00 item down to $ 4.00. Guests spending money are unable to enjoy the Bath and our beaches due to overcrowding and I see more and more of our yearlong repeat tourists posting on Social Media now from other Destinations.