Members of the public and tourism practitioners across the Territory have expressed discontent with the trajectory of the BVI’s tourism sector as the Cruise Ship industry increases its market share.
Following announcements by the Government of the Virgin Islands that the Territory recorded its second-highest number of visitor arrivals ever in 2023, many members of the public were disheartened by the fact that cruise ship visitors accounted for over 70% of the total. It was later confirmed that 2023 was a record-breaking year for cruise ship arrivals in the BVI.
Doubt surrounding the value of the Cruise Ship industry to the BVI’s economy has existed for some time now.
A report titled “Issues and Challenges in Caribbean Cruise Ship Tourism,” published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in 2005, recorded protests in the Territory that year showcasing the discontent of the community with the growing cruise ship industry at the time.
“In the British Virgin Islands, people began to protest the increase in cruise ship visitors (from 122,000 in 1995 to 466,000 in 2005) as it was perceived that these numbers would have a negative impact on the BVI tourism product and earnings,” it said.
There has been very little headway in addressing those concerns nearly a decade later, with members of the public still very critical of the impact of the Cruise Ship industry on the BVI’s economy.
While reports on tax collections are present in the “Estimates of Revenue” in the Budget Estimates, to date, there remains a gap in providing comprehensive reports on the revenue collected from the Cruise Ship Industry and to what extent the growing numbers have benefited the BVI’s Economy.
The ECLAC report goes on to note that while “the two major objectives of engaging in tourism are maximizing tourism revenues and employment,” a phenomenon exists where “governments and tourism authorities seem to focus on maximizing the number of visitor arrivals” and present that figure jointly with the number of overnight visitors to represent success in the industry.
“This procedure does not take into consideration the large difference between the spending of a hotel tourist as compared to a cruise ship visitor,” the report noted.
Researcher in Macroeconomic and Sector Studies at ECLAC, Michael Hendrickson, reflected on this phenomenon as a panelist on the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s “Diversifying Tourism” program.
The report acknowledged claims by cruise ship companies who say that their product offers great opportunities for visitors to explore a tourism destination and possibly return for a land-based, overnight holiday. Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism, the Honourable Luce Hodge Smith, shared similar sentiments in a recent interview with our news desk when asked to reflect on the benefits of the Cruise Ship Sector to the BVI.
The report warned of the potential economic ramifications of cruise ship visitor-led tourism products, asserting that “if cruise ship visitors substitute hotel or yachting tourists, any tourism destination suffers a major loss in tourism receipts and direct and indirect employment.”
“The increased market share would then result in a loss of tourism earnings and tourism employment as cruise ship visitors spend less per visit than hotel or yachting tourists,” the report continued.
In 2024, the question remains: What is the true value of the Cruise Ship Industry to the British Virgin Islands?