First in a series
The grease that makes the wheels of the Virgin Islands economy run is the V.I. Tourism Department. The department has a budget of $3.5 million with a 10 percent cut on the horizon for fiscal year 2001. Debate about the priorities within these fiscal confines is heating up.
There is major disagreement over the approximately 30 percent of the Tourism budget now being spent for the 12 offshore tourism offices. The V.I. government maintains six offices of its own on the U.S. mainland and has contract relationships with agents in Canada, Italy, Denmark, Germany, England and Puerto Rico.
The mainland and Puerto Rico offices were initiated a couple of decades ago to put a Virgin Islands face out there to answer questions for the potential tourist, make and maintain contact with travel agents and take part in trade shows.
Tourism Commissioner-designate Rafael Jackson sees the offices as important for direct sales to travel agencies. In an official statement issued on Thursday, June 8, by Martin Public Relations, the government’s mainland p.r. agency, he said: "Direct sales efforts to travel agents are a key component to a successful tourism industry. We need to increase the offshore offices’ visibility and impact on travel agents and the traveling public."
Richard Doumeng, St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association president, thinks all of the offices but New York and maybe L.A. should have been closed by now. "There is absolutely no business sense in doing what we are doing in the way we are doing it. This is an obsolete practice," he said in testimony May 22 before the Senate Agriculture, Economic Development and Consumer Protection Committee.
The five-year economic recovery plan developed for the administration by the task force named by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull and chaired by John deJongh Jr. proposes that Tourism evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the offshore offices, both on the mainland and abroad.
Is anybody there?
In an effort to assess the cost-effectiveness of the six mainland offices – in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami (Coral Gables), Chicago and Los Angeles – the Source over a period of two weeks called, and in some cases visited, the offices, seeking specific information that potential visitors might want, requesting materials and monitoring the availability of personnel.
According to data in the five-year economic recovery plan, the total annual rent is now $273,958 for the six offices, which employ approximately 15 persons.
Frequent telephone calls were made over a period of 10 working days to all six offices between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. their local time. Only in the Los Angeles, New York and Miami offices did personnel consistently answer the phone.
The Los Angeles office, on the main thoroughfare of Wilshire Boulevard, occupies 1,319 square feet with an annual rent of $23,412 and has two employees. One of them has been with Tourism for more than a decade. Both responded to all questions with complete and well-researched information in a professional style.
The New York office did not always have someone available to answer the telephone shortly after 9 a.m. Staff members’ responses to questions were inconsistent in terms of accuracy. The office has three employees, two apparently being recent new hires. The 2,634-square-foot office (the size of a sprawling three-bedroom home) rents for $101,412 a year. It’s located on the sixth floor of a building near Rockefeller Center that would be impossible to find without the street address or specific directions. There are no street-level indicators of its existence.
Doumeng said of the New York office at the May 22 hearing that Tourism "could move it to New Jersey for one-tenth of the cost." He added that marketing to travel agencies and through trade shows could be accomplished by personnel working out of their homes, or even the trunks of their cars. At the same meeting, Jackson said of the rent, "I think I can cut it in half" by relocating – although this would involve breaking a lease that has four more years to run. But he said with only one person on staff at that time, it was a top priority to hire two additional New York office workers. "I need bodies in those offices," he said.
The Miami office, located in the adjacent suburb of Coral Gables, has four employees working in 1,110 square feet of space that rents for $23,242 a year. Personnel here also have a tendency not to answer the telephone at the start of the day. Those taking calls have a very positive and friendly attitude but appear to lack the background or experience to answer questions with specific details. In response to queries, they are eager to "mail you something."
The Washington office appears to do much of its business with an answering machine taking messages. In response to such messages, materials were mailed out as requested. Over six business days, 15 calls found an actual person to answer questions on three occasions. There are supposed to be two employees in the 2,137-square-foot office, located on the third floor of a building on North Capital Street. The V.I. Tourism office lists the rent as $78,816 yearly, but the suite number cited is not the one currently being used.
The longest lunch?
The Atlanta office, located in an attractive alcove of the Marquis Tower hotel lobby with easy public access, produced the second-worst telephone response record. Over eight business days that frequent calls were made, the phone was answered a total of four times. A lively answering machine message picks up immediately if there are no personnel to do so. According to one observer, a guest of the hotel, the office was not staffed at all during the work week of May 1-5, although there was a sign on the door reading "Be back at 1:00." Tourism is paying $16,044 a year to rent the 930 square feet of space.
The two employees in the Chicago office tended not to be available to answer calls in the late afternoon but did not show any extended absences. The office, on the second floor of a North Michigan Avenue high-rise, occupies 1,679 square feet and rents for $31,032 a year. One employee was consistently knowledgeable and exhibited a personable, upbeat attitude. The other offered vague answers sometimes bordering on inaccurate.
All printed materials requested from various offices were mailed out immediately. The slick, full-color brochures and booklets are appealing, sophisticated and informative.
But in response to specific requests for information that would require familiarity with the islands and/or knowledge of local hospitality industry properties, only the Los Angeles office was able to provide adequate information. Personnel at the five other locations preferred to "mail you something."
Family matters?
It is widely understood that many employees in these offices are political hires. Michael Bornn, Turnbull’s second nominee to head the Tourism Department (after Clement "Cain" Magras and before Jackson), early on made plans to shut the offices down. The governor ended up withdrawing Bornn’s nomination because of what he termed conflicts between the two of them.
At Jackson’s confirmation hearing before the 23rd Legislature, Sen. Violet Anne Golden asked him if he was aware that members of the governor’s and the lieutenant governor’s families were employed in the mainland offices. Jackson’s circumspect response was that he had met with all of the employees, and that while some lacked tourism experience, all were "trainable." Later in the hearing, Jackson told Golden that he was "well aware of political problems" when he accepted the governor’s nomination to head the department.
At the May 22 committee hearing, Golden reminded him of their earlier exchange. Noting that the Virgin Islands lies near the bottom of the Caribbean heap in terms of government tourism adv
ertising expenditures, she commented then: "You’re either going to pay for people, or you’re going to pay for promotion and advertising."
The levels of training and supervision within the offices individually and collectively would appear to be limited. The job description is confusing because personnel are expected to service the office, make and maintain contact with travel agents, and represent the territory at trade shows.
While Jackson insists the mainland offices are of very high priority because of their effectiveness, there is an absence of data to back this up. No records are maintained to show the numbers of calls and visits to the offices, the specific tasks completed by the office personnel, or the dollar-for-dollar effectiveness of the payroll and overhead expenditures.
CORE International, the consultant group that worked on the administration’s five-year recovery plan, could find no indication that any of the offices had established sales targets by which to gauge their success. The plan advocates replacing the offices with an Internet presence and wider promotion of Tourism’s toll-free 800 telephone number.
Jackson said at the May 22 Senate committee hearing that he supports "gradual downsizing" of the off-island offices once the Tourism website is up and running, which he said is targeted for Oct. 1.
Wednesday: Some interesting answers: Things you didn’t know about the Virgin Islands
