A legislative Finance Committee budget hearing held Friday covered many aspects of the territory’s tourism industry, but entertainment and shopping were hot topics as Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson Doty and her team presented the department’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget.
“People like to shop. We have to expand the hours of commerce,” Doty said during the meeting held at the Legislature’s Fritz A. Lawaetz conference room on St. Croix.
At issue is the fact that while downtown Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas is busy with shoppers during the day, it closes up at night.
There are several factors involved. Doty said there needs to be incentives for cruise ships to stay later at night and for visitors’ safety needed be assured. Additionally she said there needs to be more development in the way of entertainment.
“There is bigger nightlife in Cruz Bay,” said Committee Chairman Clifford Graham, referring to the sleepy downtown of St. John.
“When visitors are partying, they spend more,” said noncommittee member Sen. Alicia “Chucky” Hansen.
For daytime shoppers in the St. Thomas downtown district, Doty said the traffic on the route back to the ship is an issue. She said that cruise passengers often decide to focus on either a tour or shopping because traffic concerns mean they can’t do both. They would have to leave downtown early in order to make it back to their ships on time.
“It impacts commerce,” Doty said.
Doty made the case for department’s $2.7 million Fiscal Year 2014 budget, down 4.1 percent over last year. Tourism has also requested $17.5 million from the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund for marketing and promotions.
She said that to boost St. Croix tourism, there needs to be an “insurgence” of capital into projects already on the books so they can come to fruition. The island has several hotel developments in the planning stages, she noted.
Doty said visitor spending in St. Maarten has surpassed the Virgin Islands by a “few dollars,” and said that the amount of money cruise ship crews spend is often overlooked. Additionally she said that shoppers find more diversity in the products offered on St. Maarten.
“There is a significant difference on Main Street than when we were growing up,” she said.
Throughout the three and a half hour meeting, several senators asked Doty in what areas the territory lagged behind other Caribbean islands.
She said that port development in St. Kitts is surging ahead of the territory and St. Maarten is developing a water taxi system in conjunction with taxi drivers. Doty also said that it’s easier to find local agriculture products on the menu in the southern Caribbean.
Numerous other issues came to light, including the fact that about 100,000 people a year land at Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas before heading to the British Virgin Islands.
In discussing revenue generated by tourism, Doty agreed that some vacation villa owners do not pay taxes, a problem compounded by the fact that some villas are hard to track because the owners change the names.
Later Sen. Terrence “Positive” Nelson alleged that some merchants claim that revenues generated in the Virgin Islands are made in St. Maarten to avoid taxes.
“Let’s fix our revenues. We are being bled,” Nelson said
.
Doty told the senators that the Tourism Department is relocating its St. Thomas office to the government-owned building previously occupied by the Red Cross in downtown Charlotte Amalie. The department’s office is now in Contant.
Doty said the office will include a visitor center that should bring foot traffic to the western end of the Charlotte Amalie shopping district.
Tourism has 32 employees, including five that sell the territory offshore.
While Doty said she’s always working on airlift to the territory, she said that connections in San Juan and St. Maarten are viable options. She said Avianca Airline recently started flying into Puerto Rico, opening up the South American market with a connection to the Virgin Islands. Additionally KLM and Air France fly to St. Maarten and Doty said she’s discussed with Seaborne Airlines about the possibility of a connection.
Doty acknowledged that airlift to St. Croix is down by 700 seats due to the departure of Delta Airlines and Hovensa’s closure. She said St. Croix gets 3,500 seats a week.
In response to a question from noncommittee member Sen. Diane Capehart, Doty said that while tourism training is offered to taxi drivers, attendance is “dismal.”
“We’ll have to look into making it mandatory,” Capehart said.
Doty said that the territory is working on a visa waiver program to encourage visits by other Caribbean residents. Some need visas because the U.S. government requires visas from residents of some Caribbean countries. Currently potential visitors have to go to the U.S. embassy in Barbados to secure a visa.
In addition to Graham and Nelson, committee members Sens. Judi Buckley, Donald Cole, Myron Jackson and Clarence Payne attended the meeting. Noncommittee members included Capehart, Hansen, Sens. Tregenza Roach and Kenneth Gittens.
