|
|
USVI
tourism down 7% in august |
|
By John Collins (1)
While
activity in St. Thomas and St. John is sluggish, St. Croix is particularly
hard hit. |
 The
figures for performance in the tourism sector of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI)
in August have been released and they indicate that business this year is 7%
below the same month last year, according to the USVI government’s Bureau of
Economic Research (BER).
From January through August
the USVI received 1.64 million tourists – overnight visitors and cruise
passengers – a drop of 7% from the 1.8 million for the same period last year.
Arrivals of cruise ship passengers were down and hotels in St. Croix reported
occupancies of only one-third. The islands of St. Thomas and St. John,
registered slight increases in occupancy in August.
The BER report indicated that
the occupancy rate in August in St. Thomas and St. John was 55.3%, up slightly
from 52.8% a year earlier.. However, in St. Croix the occupancy rate for August
dropped to 34.1% from 42.2% last year.
 Cruise passenger arrivals
were down 7.5% from January through August compared with last year. Except for
the May, cruise passenger arrivals every month. But things were really dismal in
St. Croix which hasn’t seen a cruise ship since May and that resulted in a drop
of 34% overall for the period January through August.
The first ship scheduled to
call at St. Croix is the SeaDreamII Oct. 28 and then starting Nov. 17 the
2,000-passenger Constellation will commence weekly calls at St. Croix.
A veteran St. Thomas hotelier
reported that his occupancy is close to what it was last year but that his
earnings per room is12% below last year. He attributes the situation to “heavy
discounting” and said “some chain-owned hotels in St. Thomas are offering rooms
for less than $100 a night through December.
Faced with occupancies below
40%, hoteliers on St. Croix complain of a soft market and “little prospects of
recovery.” One complained about the damage caused by the reports throughout the
U.S. of Carnival pulling its cruise ships out of St. Croix because of increased
crime. But managers of some properties in both St. Thomas and St. John
indicated that the adverse publicity about St. Croix can also influence
travelers to their destinations.
USVI spot
winning praise
 On the other hand, getting
widespread praise in the territory as well as from former visitors in the U.S.,
is the current USVI media campaign in conjunction with American Airlines, US
Airways and the USVI Tourism Department. Called “This Land is Your Land,” it
features Woody Guthrie’s 1940 folk song that became in the 1960s a virtual
anthem for the Baby Boomer generation – a key market for many tourism campaigns
today. It includes colorful video highlights of USVI beaches, buildings and
people.
Commenting on some of the
territory’s current promotional campaigns in the U.S., the USVI Daily News
described an airline spot as “attractive but not compelling.” It shows a couple
walking along a beach. “This ad is not unique – we’ve seen variations on it,
promoting sun, sea and sand for some island somewhere.”
Top
1)
Other articles by the well known Caribbean author John Collins can be read
at:
www.pymesdominicanas.com
Revista INTER-FORUM is affiliated with
(ICCAP) Any reproduction in part or whole is strictly forbidden without the authors written authorization
Top
October 14, 2002
| 
