Dec. 31, 2008 — While many hoteliers reported they did better than expected for the holidays, at least one person involved in a tourism-related activity said business was way off.
"It is very depressing," said Dana Bartlett, who owns Carolina Corral in Coral Bay, St. John.
She had no customers at all the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas when she'd normally take about 16 people out riding horses. She said she had a few people each day since then, but business was nothing like it was in previous years.
Margo Meacham, who owns Gone Tropical gift shop in Christiansted, St. Croix said that well-heeled customers who normally visit during the holidays are still spending.
"But it wasn't, like, fantastic," she said.
Gone Tropical normally gets the local trade, but Meacham said that this year, customers wanted discounts because they saw that stateside retailers slashed prices before Christmas. However, the holidays are just the start of the winter tourism season and Meacham wasn't willing to cut prices now.
"I can't afford to do it," she said.
Everyone is worried, however, about what the rest of the winter season will bring.
"I think people are trying to hold on to see if there's a season," said Lonnie Willis, who owns several tourism businesses on St. John. Like others, she said the Christmas holiday season has shaped up to be pretty good, but she suggested that many people booked their hotels before the recent stock market crash.
Richard Doumeng, chairman of the V.I. Hotel Association and manager at Bolongo Bay Beach Resort on St. Thomas, agreed.
"We aren't experiencing cancellations, but people said that if they hadn't paid in advance, they wouldn't be here," Doumeng said.
That said, he's had several sets of guests book just a few days before their arrival. Doumeng said that people are using comp time, and in some cases, were laid off for a couple of weeks over the holidays to help their employer save money.
While he's got the "heads in the beds," Doumeng said people are spending less at the hotel's Lobster Grill. He said a friend in the restaurant business told him he's seen more people splitting entrees than ever before.
While the higher-end Lobster Grill is making less money, Bolongo Bay's less expensive Iggie's Restaurant did a bang-up business last Saturday for its all-you-can-eat crab night. Doumeng attributes some of that to the fact that the restaurant is popular with visitors who stay at other hotels.
"Iggie's was nuts. It looked like a real Saturday night in season," he said.
Vicki Locke, marketing manager at the Buccaneer Hotel on St. Croix, said the hotel wasn't totally full over Christmas, but she called it a decent Christmas.
"Many people said they were so happy to be here to get away from the gloom," she said, referring to the mainland recession.
Nancy Anderson, who owns McLaughlin Anderson Luxury Villas, said this was the first Christmas season in over 20 years that she didn't rent all her villas. She manages 52 villas on St. Thomas and markets many others across the U.S. and British Virgin Islands as well as Grenada.
While McLaughlin Anderson normally has a 10-night minimum over Christmas, at Thanksgiving it became clear that needed to change. Anderson now only requires a seven-night minimum.
Anderson sees several reasons for the decline. In addition to the poor economy, airline prices were high, there were fewer seats and people couldn't get frequent flyer seats.
"A lot of people blow out on the villa and use frequent flyer miles to get here," she said.
She suggested people are also sick of the hassles associated with flying, such as Transportation Security Administration screenings and delays.
Anderson hopes she doesn't have to start discounting prices at her villas, but a perusal of several villa management companies on St. John showed they are doing just that.
If discounting becomes widespread, Anderson fears the Virgin Islands will lose the luxury business just like it did when cruise ships cut fares.
Anderson also observed that while people may be scrimping where they can, they're still eating out. She said she recently saw a survey that showing dining out was the number one favorite activity on a Caribbean vacation.
"Women are not having to cook," she said.
Chris Meyer, who owns the Lime Inn restaurant on St. John, was pleasantly surprised that the restaurant did so well.
"We're down a little, but we've had a terrific couple of weeks," she said.
Particularly on St. John, with its hundreds of vacation villas, many people expected the villa guests to eat at their villas rather than restaurants.
"We're all surprised," Meyer said.
The Christmas holidays may have turned out better than anyone expected for hotels and restaurants, but January is not looking good.
"After the second week in January, it's terrifying," Doumeng said.
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