Premier hails visitor numbers, says BVI ‘doing well’
The BVI is currently closing in on one million visitor arrivals — a milestone it has achieved only once before — prompting much excitement from Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley.
Premier Wheatley, who is also the Tourism Minister, expressed that the signs, including those from prospective investors, are encouraging and assured residents that the long-promised airport expansion will happen under his government.
“Our numbers are trending in the right direction,” Dr Wheatley said. “We can’t be doing too badly when, by the conclusion of this year, we will have the second best year in terms of visitors ever in the history of the Virgin Islands.“
The BVI last hit the one million-visitor mark in 2016, just one year before two devastating category five hurricanes wreaked havoc on the territory.
Since then, the territory has struggled to rebuild its badly damaged infrastructure, but Premier Wheatley said the BVI has steadily improved its visitor numbers.
He commented that overnight arrivals are not where they once were in 2016 but argued that this was because of the damage left by those hurricanes and a flood that happened that same year, coupled with effects from the global pandemic a few years later.
“Since that time, we have been trending back in the right direction,” the Premier said. “And I guarantee you, at some point during this administration, when we have some of these other properties come back on stream, we will either equal 2016 numbers or we’ll surpass them.”
Despite the positive development, he emphasised that no political party should claim credit. He argued that people are drawn to the BVI because it is a naturally beautiful destination.
Premier Wheatley highligted promised investments at Nanny Cay, Blunder Bay, Lambert Bay, Norman Island and Prospect Reef and said they were all moving forward.
He told lawmakers that he should be held accountable at the end of his administration if these promised initiatives don’t happen. “So if we get to the end of this administration and you don’t see any activity, well, I will certainly accept that criticism and that responsibility,” the Premier said.
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this is the worst season for over a decade. The only thing they are putting at numbers is cruise ships calling in, overnight visitors are way down, empty yachts for the past 2 weeks, poor bookings for christmas and new year. THINGS are not good, the world is in recession
The BVI IS A DUMP SITE ! Until this place gets cleaned up tourism will struggle.
The world ain’t in no recession. Human greed is nullifying the very progress it seeks to attain.
What?
This is the quietest season since Irma
Stop spinning nonsense !
Lies , lies, lies
Have you ever heard such dribble. a true narcissist sociopath
A load of horse sh** from our premier as usual . Come on man cruise ship passengers do not count.
The Cruise ships are the Issue they are offering passengers all these packages and discounts they want to take every cent from the passengers so by the time most of the passengers come on land they have very little to spend. So our local tourism marketing team and local businesses need to step up their advertising game because the competition is real and serious..
TOO MANY EUROPEAN SHIPS. GERMAN FRENCH ITALIAN ENGLISH! They DO NIT SPEND Money. They are rude and want your product for Pennie’s. No amount of marketing can fix this
No Cuurent Data
When you go to the Governmnet’s own website the last tourist arrival numbers are for December 2019, four years ago
http://www.bvi.gov.vg/statistics?title=arrivals&field_stats_catergory_tid=All
So the PM can say whatever he wants in the absence of real data.
Any tourism business owner will tell you that the place is slow compared to previous years. We on the streets know better. What data he gave to support what he saying?