Is enough money being injected into marketing BVI?
Premier Dr. Natalio Wheatley has confirmed that 20 percent of the Environmental Protection Fund will be allocated to marketing the British Virgin Islands (BVI) as a premier tourist destination, as fresh concerns have been raised about whether the BVI Tourist Board is receiving adequate funding.
During the second sitting of the second session of the Fifth House of Assembly (HOA) on Thursday, February 13, Sixth District Representative Myron Walwyn questioned the Premier about the total balance of the Environmental Protection Fund and the amount allocated to the BVI Tourist Board for marketing and product development since his tenure as Minister of Finance.
“To date, the balance in the Environmental Fund is $8,001,506.76,” Premier Wheatley stated. He further explained that under the Environmental Protection and Tourism Improvement Fund Act of 2017, the funds are distributed across various environmental and tourism-related initiatives.
“Twenty percent of the fund is designated for marketing the territory as a premier tourist destination,” he added.
The Premier also outlined that 40 percent of the fund is allocated for environmental protection, improvement, and climate change initiatives, while the remaining 40 percent is designated for the maintenance and development of tourist sites and other tourism-related activities throughout the Territory.
Meanwhile, Walwyn raised concerns about the BVI Tourist Board’s funding, noting that the board had requested nearly $17 million for the budget year but received only $10 million. He questioned why additional funds from the Environmental Protection Fund had not been allocated to the board to enhance the BVI’s marketing efforts.
“Given the competitive nature of the tourism industry and the fact that we have fallen behind our competitors, wouldn’t it be prudent to advance additional funds to the Tourist Board for marketing to ensure a successful 2026?” Walwyn asked.
In response, Wheatley stated that current legislation does not permit such a transfer of funds.
The Environmental Protection Fund has faced scrutiny in the past regarding its implementation and impact. In September 2017, the government introduced a $10 environmental and tourism levy for various categories of visitors entering the BVI.
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The private sector markets the BVI. It always had. It generates its own funding, it knows it product, and it knows its market. The BVITB budget should go into the schools, hospitals, and roads.
is to provide easy jobs for otherwise unemployed BV islanders so they can spend treasury money ‘pretending’ to be tourists in other countries.
Unfortunately, the aspiration to be a premier tourist destination does not fit the reality.
The sailing remains world class, although there are arguably already too many boats on the water – not enough moorings, and not enough bars and restaurants on the beach or close. We need to encourage the development of more bars and restaurants, and encourage the existing ones to up their offering.
Why is there no bar on Great Thatch, Pelican, only one on Cooper, the one at Peter only open when there is a cruise ship in Tortola, none at the Dogs etc?
There has been improvement post hurricane at JVD, and Soggy Dollar, Hendos, Foxy’s, Tipsy Shark and Cosairs all serve thier purporse well, Coco Loco is ok, and Foxy’s Taboo is starting to look much better, but the other bars (including the ones at White bay, the ones at Great Harbour and the three in Little Harbour) look run down, dirty and untidy – they don’t have the charm of the B-Line and need to smarten up. Why are there only tatty shacks at between Long Bay and Smugglers, and only tatty shacks at Smugglers (although at least one of them at Smugglers has some charm). Why no proper bar at Josiahs, why nothing on the North Shore of Tortola beaches. Why so few decent bars at White Bay on Beef Island – and why so many shacks?
Whilst the undeveloped feeling is attractive, where we do development it needs to be smart and not tatty and dirty looking. Tourists can chose, and other Islands in the Caribbean are impinging our our product – not in their massive hotel complexes but in there laid back, but clean a tidy, low keys bars and restaurants.
We may like the run down dirty bars playing very loud rap music, but it is not what a typicla tourist is looking for.
Why does it take 4 hours for a tourist, who wants to stay, to extend their entry permit. The Immigration Office in town is over-run with new work permit holders and residents all day every day – why can’t tourists extend at the airport or the ferry ports – where the staff are frequently sitting around doing nothing waiting for the next plane/ferry to arrive (althigh the airport is getting busier).
We need to up our game if we want to extend the tourism offering.
Inject the money into fixing the place. A nice looking, pleasant and well run place sells itself.
All thirteen elected members of this government need to be replaced with minds that can and are wlling to move the country forward. There is no work or forward mdevelopment being done other than personal financial development through non hygenic means.
Why every month there are hundreds of thousands being spent on trips around the world yet nothing concrete or beneficial ever materializes out of them.
Nothing financial ever comes out of them. They appear nothing more than the personal indulgment of those elected folks for their own pleasure.
If they cannot create incentives that would attrack investments in the in many forms, at least they should try to bring a few more poverty laden wages entities in the form of hotels.
We have the sun and sand. Why not utilize them to the fullest?
Sun sand sea beaches. Swimming sailing snorkerling and scuba diving and deep sea diving and stress free living is what the British Virgin Islands is all about. Just peaceful and quiet fishing villages only.
To answer that question you need to be sure that the money you already spending to market the bvi being used effectively. Do these people have to provide any statistics to show that their current marketing efforts /expenditure actually producing the expected results or are we going to just throw more money at something we not even sure is working for us. Last thing I remember seeing in the news with tourist board is a report claiming gross financial mismanagement over the years and audits are not up to date. So my thing is how you want your budget to increase by 7 million without showing that the 10 already being used effectively.
Need to know the spending on that credit card.
Had a lady one time was running wild living high off of Tourist Board money. Even had a few friends and family benefitted.
How much of that “stolen” money has been paid back?