Dear Source:
Ms. Barr asks some very important questions to which I would like to add a few suggestions.
Outsource the Hosting.
Very robust hosting plans start at around $50 a month and can easily be upgraded as needed. The hosting agency buys and maintains the equipment so the fixed cost is about $600 a year with no surprises and 24x7x365 support. Compare this to $200,000 startup with a recurring cost of $140,000.
The Virgin Islands are somewhat on a dirt path in regards the Information Highway. Stateside hosting agencies have much better response times to requests from the rest of the world.
Don't Build a complicated site.
We want to sell the Islands not a site. Complicated sites full of Java Script, Frames, Flash and such just don't work on many browsers. They will not increase tourist flow which should be our bottom line goal. Worse, folks don't hang around on sites that take forever to download.
Appropriate sites are much less expensive to design. I agree with Ms. Barr that $350,000 is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on site development. A small fraction of this would buy a wonderful site from many local developers.
Features we should include: links to current events, guest book, news list, web cams, current weather, and bulletin board.
Why reinvent the wheel?
There are already a number of great sites that represent the Virgin Islands. We should advertise these sites on the proposed USVI site.
Choose a Good Name
The value of a good name can not be overstated. It should be short, easy to spell, on-topic and memorable. I've found a few such names that are still available but, to avoid cyber squatters, will not share them here. I'll donate them free to the Department of Tourism.
Charles V. Balch