TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Chinese company will build airport extension

Many good points today. Time can be more important than money for at least some. The Villas and Boats keep getting larger and "higher end". New Markets. In today's world where many can work remote much of the time; there is a market for renters of a month or more. One option many renters of any length need is the ability to easily and reliably travel in and out mid trip at times to make critical meetings, deal with a crisis that suddenly appears, or simply a boss that suddenly demands ones presence. Those higher end, less price sensitive, need for flexibility travelers are bypassing the BVI today. A couple of EIS flights to US hubs a day fixes that. It also opens the doors to the person with a jet card for as little as 25 hours a year in their pocket to call a plane to come get them. Those FAA 135 aircraft that many employers use know cannot land at EIS today.

I use Aspen as a comparison again. Aspen has 200,000 air passengers a year and flight daily during the winter season with Delta, United, and more. Even with good mainline and discount carriers some still drive the 4 hours over the continental pass in and out of Aspen. Some to save a few dollars along with a long list of other personal reason. Certainly the ferry option will be here for a long time if not forever. What the ferries will look like and operate like will be a joint regulatory and subsidiarity effort between the governments of the BVI, USVI, and the likes of the US Coast Guard. American Eagle and the ATR's made the BVI what it is today. Real US Jet service will retain what the BVI has and improve the economy with the same or fewer visitors than the environment struggles to sustain today.

If I had a magic wand their would be a free clean ferry meeting passengers at STT with their bags checked through to their last dock in the BVI. Those boats would leave at leave and return at least every hour each day from 2 hours before the first flight and continue until 2 hours after the last flight. I would provide Little Dix like service using contractors for everyone with an airline ticket and reservation in the BVI. C&I would be painless near invisible for those arriving by air whether the plane landed at STT or EIS. Denmark is my favorite example there. Land in Denmark and there is clearly security. Unless you truly do not look like you belong there or a dog signals an issue no one slows the visitors down from the gate, to baggage claim, to the taxi.

My best crystal ball guess if the ferries ever improve it will only be once US Mainland Air-service is functional daily and directly between EIS and US Hubs.

Much of the land is occupied, the anchorages are full even overcrowded. The secret private banking business is at risk. The only way to improve, (maybe to just keep what they have), the standard of living for the BVI belongers for the next generation is to increase the amount spent by each visitor each day they are in the BVI. I do not think there is any disdain... well except for some of the cruise hordes. Reality is the BVI must set and path and is setting path to higher end, even much higher end visitors whether they like it or not. Little Dix just closed for 2 years to make the place higher end. Any idea what the renovation budget is for those 100 total rooms?

THIS is where the motivation for the runway extension is!

I have said it several times before, and recent events support this more than ever. This is a good read: http://globalnews.ca/news/2628502/what-d...-panama-papers. Excerpt:
"More than half the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the Mossack Fonseca law firm, including ones owned by the father of British Prime Minister David Cameron and relatives of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, were registered in the BVI, according to reports co-ordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists"

We are all deluding ourselves when we think the lengthening of the runway is about flying in 737s from the US. As George explains very clearly, just refueling a regular medium-haul air service would be very hard. And building a runway over a lagoon that lands 737s, for a population of 30,000 residents and a few cost-conscious tourists? Ludicrous! In particular, with STT right next door. Not gonna happen.

We are also deluding ourselves if we think we play an important role in the economy of the BVI. Sorry I have to break it to you, this is all window dressing. Yes, there are a bunch of people earning their living by cleaning villas and fixing charter boats but that is chump change compared to the REAL money that is being made.

You can read where the money in the BVI comes from in the Panama papers.

This whole airport story has absolutely nothing to do with tourism. Tourists can fly conveniently to STT or SJU or SXM and take a short flight or ferry. But the important people (for the BVI government) cannot do that because the last thing they want to do is to go through a first-world immigration line, with their suitcases subject to search by first world customs.

What these people need is to fly their private jets _directly_ from South America or the Middle East and not be bothered to show their face, passport or briefcase to US or EU officials. The length of the current runway allows them to land but not to take off.

THAT is the problem for the BVI government, not whether you do or don't like taking the ferry from STT.

Their planes don't need gazillions of gallons to refuel (and they couldn't care less about the gas price), and they don't need a runway that can withstand regular landings by commerical jets. Just give them a place to fly directly in and out, and to head straight to their shell company offices.

I am afraid you are wrong there. About 35% of the BVI GDP is from the financial sector but 199,900 of those 200,000 companies are nothing more than a file folder in some filing cabinet on De Castro St. The money is in Lichdenstein or Nevada or Delaware. 99.9% of the principles have never laid eyes on the BVI. There are few reason for any "corporate executive" to come to the BVI to conduct business. The entire corporate records of 99% of those companies can be scanned and emailed anywhere in the world in less than an hour. The occasional Russian oligarch or Arab potentate may fly in to meet his yacht but the only auditors who might fly in will be government regulators tracing down tax scofflaws and they are definitely not high end travelers.

For the record when I speak of "auditors" and professional consultancies. I am referring the the third party independent certified talent you need to run and finance the likes of The Moorings, Little Dix, BEYC, sell and close on $X Million Villas, the loan that went bad on Scrub was $100 Million. 21st Century business and modern real world banking and public markets demand all kinds of outside and inside certified professional oversight. The $500 Million bond offerings to deal with the BVI government debt will need a bunch of those people to.

The entire 35% of the BVI GDP from the financial sector is at risk. That business can all leave via email at the speed of light. Tourism is the only sustainable economy the BVI has.

I took a close look at the proposed runway and the terrain around the airport. It's a operational nightmare for airline ops with larger aircraft. I am not completely sure it's even feasible. ILS approaches require 6 miles of straight away. Not possible at EIS. A GPS approach could be used however generally you want a 3 mile straight segment. That can be reduced to 1.5 miles but that still puts large jets turning final over fat hogs bay. With a short final the airport will be classed as special and require additional crew training and currency obligations upping costs.
For less then 10 cents on the dollar the BVI could set up a modern ferry system and set up reliable large turboprop service to connect in SJU. Maybe common sense will prevail.
G

Now George, they could knock about 300' off the top of Quick Hill aand another 150' off of Kingston Hill and use the rock to fill in Trellis Bay. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

"Maybe common sense will prevail." Wouldn't THAT be a miracle <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> Unfortunately, with common sense, you can't skim some here and there and everywhere and line your pocket.

I am amused by this claim that the BVI should let the riff raff go to Mexico, DR or Cuba and gear up very expensive air service to cater to the high rollers. Claims that because charter yachts are getting bigger and more expensive and that Villas are more expensive with more amenities (don't necessarily find that true, much less change in rental villas than yachts) is somehow causing a proponent of this boondoggle to claim that these high rollers won't worry about the price.

These people seem to mistake these often hard working couples saving and or borrowing for a week's vacation in the BVI, for a few Owners of the two hundred ft mega yachts and Island Owners. They have nothing in common other than destination. However the former make up the bulk of BVI travelers.

This silly premise misses the mark badly for the average and the majority of the visitors to the BVI

Well let's take two families each with two kids who are renting a Villa above Smuggler's cove. They are sharing the 4 bedroom accommodations that lets say rent for 5,000 in June . So each couple is spending $2,500 for their share of the week's accommodations.

Or let's say the same two couples are chartering a 4 cabin cat for a week at a price of 10 grand, each couple's share, 5,000.

Btw many of the cats are split 4 ways so claiming because the boats grew larger and better equipped, in no way means that in most cases you have candidates for the old Robin Leach series badly misunderstands the case.

In addition the majority of these villa rentals and yacht charters are for one week. many people plan a whole year or a two years or more to make the trip. Some save for it, some max credit cards and I'm sure some have hit home equity lines to have that BVI vacation.

Now let's say this typical family from a Midwest city I'm familiar with can get tickets lately for about 600$ to STT with one connection thru Atlanta or Miami and arrive at 130 or 230 pm. 200$ + 50 for taxi gets them to west end. 2650 for the 4

If they take Jib's High Roller Express, they will have the same one connection in the states, may arrive at similar time or I suspect later because with everyone on the plane only going to the BVI an airline will wait till all feeder arrivals possible to try to load it. So currently it is about 900-1200 from the same Midwest city to EIS. With this High Roller xpress let's say it's 1800$. That family of four would be out about 7200 air fare plus probably 150$ taxi to west end.

So you are looking at the travel cost being about $ 3,700 higher for that family of four.

That difference in cost amounts to 1.5 times what they paid for their accommodations. It would be 3/4 of what they spent on their share of the charter boat.

I've have heard many more complaints about cost to get to the BVI since American dropped the props than I have inconvenience.

The BVI would be much smarter to spend their money on better ferry service and find those 30 or 40 seat prop planes and subsidize flights between SJU and EIS.

lLiane I'm guessing can tell you that not everyone chartering a yacht, even new and fancy, is unconcerned about cost of travel to the BVI. I know for darn sure that is true of many land based guests. People are like sheep. You can shear them many times but only eat them once. The High Roller Express will not appeal to the vast majority of travelers to the BVI because of cost.

And with that I will wait till another year and another change of his screen name to shoot holes in this plan.

I agree Will. Look at any busy anchorage. The majority of boats would all be $10k or less for a week - many of them far less then that.

The only change I've seen in the 5-6 years we've been doing this is that Moorings has about a dozen crewed 58' cats. It seems that market has increased. They used to only have one or two large crewed cats like that. But even that has 5 cabins so it can be split.

I really don't see that changing much and I'd wager those doing the larger crewed boats (50' and up) aren't visiting multiple times a year like the rest of us.

For us, I really don't see going through San Juan as an inconvenience at all. St Thomas actually would be since it would mean two flights and a ferry. SJU is just 1 flight, plus another flight to Tortola. Cost is close enough to justify the shorter travel time.

If the BVI really is interested in gaining more visitors - I think advertising is a much bigger need. I think many people just aren't aware of the BVI. I talk to people all the time and I'm surprised how many aren't familiar with it at all. St. Thomas for sure and St. John in most cases as well.. but BVI - Tortola, Virgin Gorda.. typically not. At best some have heard of Tortola, but no other islands in the BVI.

"If the BVI really is interested in gaining more visitors" That is not what the BVI leadership is play for. The powers that be are playing for a similar or even less visitors spending more per day.

No one is saying you cannot keep taking the ferries they are not going anywhere or at least the services are not. Too many locals(voters) depend on them. You can also swim, row, or sail your own boat or charter boat here.

The economic or ATR's or turboprops do not add up anymore. The fuel cost too much and the planes do not seat enough passengers to pay for the maintenance and crew. That is why American stopped flying them. We will also see the 50 seat regional jets go away across all the US networks.

To be clear no one is telling anyone who loves the BVI to head somewhere else. The business reality is the BVI will never be able to compete on price with the likes of the DR, Caymans, a host of others building out for those markets, and Cuba when it ever comes online for the North American market. The BVI is in a position where revenues must be raised and at some point the financial industry revenues replaced. There is simply nothing sustainable with hidden secret bank accounts and shell corporations in the worlds future.

Watch the taxes, fees, and other government charges go up shortly. That will only go so far. The viable option is a boutique tourism market more focused on travelers who are not price focused. Easy jet service is a key table stake there. Financing all those assets will also require business like jet services for the support staff that goes along with complex high finance. One other item... Counting on anything in the near future from or in Puerto Rico for you business is akin to playing Russian roulette. PR is in for a world of hurt and change. Maybe when they hit rock bottom a new hospitality and charter market will open up in that direction. STT is a disaster on Saturday and other times so even with perfect ferries that place does not meet all the requirements. The people who study all the problems and are focused on the plans for the future look at all of that. The fix to take control of the BVI destiny no matter how expensive is a proper runway and airport.

[quote]StormJib said:

"Watch the taxes, fees, and other government charges go up shortly. That will only go so far. "

Yep..and after the government p's away 100 mil plus on this runway and is either shut down by safety concerns like Virgin Gorda was or after a crash ..or as is likely there is no way to fill planes at inflated pricing on a daily basis and you have weekly service on a 100 mil plus investment. ..
Then they will too squeeze more blood out of the turnips just like my great state of Illinois, that thought spending now and paying later was a brilliant strategy. Always easy to build "stuff" with borrowed money or OPM. Other people's money. It may well make he BVI the next Puerto Rico in fiscal terms.

American did not stop flying the ATR's they moved them to the mainland. The new generation of large turboprops are very efficient, far more then jets. They could also go in and out of EIS without the need to fuel getting cheap gas in SJU.

Storm Jib is the former PA_Ron, who I think was kicked off of here. casailor always feels the need to defend him for whatever reason, saying Ron is a full-time BVI resident. Yet, Ron has been posting from Pennsylvania for as long as I can remember. So, he must have some long arms for being a "full time BVI resident" for the past 16 years and posting from Pennsylvania. As I said before, if you feel the need to defend "Storm Jib" and all his worldy experiences, have him post his experience and not a bunch of cut & paste garbage.

All the American ATR's are now gone from US passenger service. The ATR's cost to much to fly per seat mile and hour to make any money in a competitive market. Our US airlines not longer want any small planes. They are simply not profitable in a structure where you must run the plane on 9 cents a seat mile hoping to get 15 cents a seat mile from the passengers. Each time you go up and each time you go down money is spent. The same with each time you stop at an airport. The 3 hop to get the BVI is also economically unsustainable. There are 2 ATR's that remain with Cape Air flying the Guam, Rota and Saipan routes where there is no competition and swimming is just not possible. Most were simply handed back to the banks. FedEx does have 20-30 flying cargo. There are simply not enough seats to sell on the smaller planes to cover the cost of capital, the pilots and crew, service, and fuel. The small regional jets seating 50 will be the next to go. The slower prop planes get hit twice. Small number of seats and the slower speeds reduce the number of legs they can fly each day or period. Anyplace their is competition or passengers concerned with price the small plane jet or prop are toast. The result just like EIS lost service many others have lost airline service and another 20-30 are on the block to be cut soon. Either you have regular airline jet service or none at all. With well over 300,000 overnight visitors the BVI can more than support jet service coupled with the fact that the 30,000 residents are not going to drive anywhere off island.

Unfortunately, what you and I consider common sense, is perceived as pedantic and unreasonable to those on the other side of the argument. They are certainly entitled to their opinion, but so are the rest of us.

I am firmly set in my view that the airport expansion is not only a terrible idea, but it is one that could potentially sink the BVI financially. I envision a future not dissimilar to that currently being experienced by Greece, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and several others. The difference between the BVI and those countries is that other nations actually care what happens to them because their financial well-being directly impacts others. That is not the case with the BVI. If the BVI goes into a tailspin, the world will move on with barely a footnote in their local papers.

Since the airport expansion is going to happen, I just hope my feelings of dread are way off the mark. I don't believe they are, but hope is all I have to cling to. I just pray the people are prepared for the ramifications failure could present. There could be many, many very difficult years ahead.

I noticed that as well ..odd a BVI resident is posting non stop from eastern Pennsylvania and believes one of those direct flights should be just up the road from him in Newark. LOL guess Calsail didn't click the IP into the free service and was fooled by likely a claim via the "internets" .

I have no beef if someone believes something different than I do..but this whole retread of its feasible to build a very expensive runway that may be dangerous or impossible to get certification..to change the makeup of the visitors to the BVI when the biggest problem is lack of increase in numbers ..so that even fewer come is beyond silly. At any rate he is indeed a troll with or without an agenda concerning the airport. so I will as I said I would a couple posts back.. make this my last post on the issue and wish him well in handling his sprawling BVI digs from Penn.

What I find to be the most interesting aspect is that the price dropped to $150 million from almost double that in all previous estimates and also the minor fact that NONE of the studies commissioned by the gov't have been released to the public. I'm thinking this may well earn the name "ObamaAir" ,as you won't know what you are getting until it's too late, but rest assured, it will be good for everybody, regardless of cost. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

The difference is the first proposal was for the runway, apron and terminal area and the runway extension was to be on pilings. This bid is for the runway and apron on fill with a couple of culverts so Trellis won't turn into a cesspool.

For anyone intrested,Here is a simulation of the flow in Trellis Bay during tidal reversals with the proposed runway extension. Blue= 0 current

With all due respect, this is not the 1990's. Hydrofoils have improved tremendously since then. The fact that they literally fly over the water, means that they are able to handle heavy weather conditions much more easily than a traditional boat and when a traditional boat could not even consider operating, a hydrofoil can.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ2sSRBMPqs

There are many hydrofoil ferries operating all over the world these days. Do a little research and I think you may be surprised at just how popular they are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-vh2b8hUU

In my opinion, alternative solutions should not be dismissed quite so off-handedly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVm8XrTfqLM

The government is going to be investing upwards of 150 million dollars (and very likely a lot more) in the new airport. Bad weather impacts airplanes as well as ferries.

All I am saying is that with a significant investment in a new ferry system, the BVI would be [color:"red"]guaranteed[/color] to benefit. The same investment in an extended airport runway is NOT a guarantee of anything. We will still be at the mercy of the various airlines.

The 35% is from the official GDP. There are many things that are not publicly known. Some people like utmost discretion, again see the Panama papers (not that this is some new insight). Furthermore, would you be surprised that these people would have a disproportionate influence on the government officials, possibly, quite possibly, even more than the voters?

The 'money' is not more in Liechtenstein or Nevada than anywhere else. The fraction of money in physical form (bills, coins etc) worldwide is 8.3% of the total, the rest is numbers in some files. And many of these files are on Castro Street...

Of course you could email your legitimate money to the BVI. But there is a number of people who go through great pains to make sure that it is NOT known where their money is. I have a feeling that the people that use Fonseca Mossack and other companies of their ilk don't choose Panama or the BVI because of the great interest rates or frequent flyer points on their credit card expenses...

I am not talking about 'corporate executives' that need to fly in to do business, or oligarchs meeting their yacht for a vacation. I am talking about people that have A LOT of money and that, for reasons of their own, don't want the US or the EU or other first-world countries know about it. They are not going to send the money with SWIFT or email like you or I would, but they (or their agents) have to deliver certain papers in person.

And this would not work if they go through customs in SJU, STT or SXM. In fact, a few years ago the BVI government explicitly said that they are getting behind in their business because some other Carib nation (I think it was Antigua) built an airport that allows private jets from S. America to fly in directly, without touching US or EU ground.

Aren't all the arguments (some by you) convincing that there is no way this whole endeavor has anything to do with passenger jets?

The family of the Chinese President Xi Jing alone has hundreds of millions of dollars secretly parked in the BVI (and these are only the numbers that became public last month). Maybe the Chinese government made the BVI government a good price, so they could get safely to their hoard?

Let's say the real cost is the double of what the Chinese will charge. Have a Chinese state-owned company write down 150M, so you have safe access to your own private hundreds of millions, what's not to like about that?

Sorry Ernst that is not how it works. The BVI does not have any large banks capable of dealing with funds anywhere close to that. The part the BVI plays in this shell game is the creations of empty secret shell corporations where the actual owners can never be traced. After opening a string of identity hiding corporations any funds or properties are put in the the names of those identity hiding corporations. The actual cash or assets of value never cross into the borders of the tiny BVI. The BVI makes their money by charging a fee to create and maintain each of those thousands of paper companies. Companies that never make anything or do anything other hide the identity of the true beneficiary of funds, stock, or real estate far away from the BVI.

The BVI does not offer the ability to guarantee or back any deposits in an actual BVI bank. No one with judgement would ever put any cash in an actual BVI bank.

In some simpler terms some of the physical paper work may be done in the BVI. In some cases a live person may travel to do paperwork real time to avoid the electronic trail and intermediaries. The real money travels electronically and there is certainly no place to put and keep real money on the BVI.

The BVI receives $200 million each year from the fees charged to own these hidden corporations. A simple regulatory change requiring the directors of each company be made public a change that the UK can dictate would make that $200M in cash to the BVI government go away. That shame corporate identity business is not sustainable and will go away at some point. Higher end tourism is the only viable option to replace that money the BVI government lives on today. Yes, Antigua has a brand new $100M airport built by the Chinese. Like others Antigua expects to double the number of their hotel rooms over the next 18 months. Bermuda is on the way to a new $200M outsources airport. St. Vincent will have a new airport open with 9,000 foot runway soon. The risk to the BVI here is maybe too little too late. Once the business leaves to the other markets with easier access the cost to get the business back will be very expensive. Can you make better ferry options sure. Can you compete for the best visitors using ferries where many others have direct jet access absolutely not.

High speed ferries are very expensive and major challenges to maintain. The motion aboard when the seas are up are awful. Motion that is very different than any boat. Ferry services around the world struggle and fail more than they succeed. Where they do survive the business is generally freight and cars coupled with passengers where airplanes are not part of the trip. The airport, taxi, ferry, taxi is not a 21st century winner. In Sydney and Seattle where commuter ferries work 2/3 of the cost is paid by taxpayer subsidy. Yes some visitors will take the bus from the public airport to the city center; most do not. The skip the airport and focus on the ferry argument ignores the tens of failures around the world and the visitor offerings others have recently finished and the others that will open shortly. It is time to join the team and focus the energy on getting a competitive runway in operation along with the offerings to get visitors to and from their plane seat to their final stop. Today the BVI is a business venue without a real street nor place to park.

The ATR's are retired now. They were old and tired but they were moved to the mainland after SJU was closed. There will always be a market for smaller aircraft. Delta plans on keeping 125 of the 50 seat CRJ's in their fleet long term. The new generation Turboprops are fantastic aircraft. They fly almost as fast as the jets and can often be turned quicker since they don't need to be fueled. The Bombardiar Q400 can carry up to 86 people, cruise at 400 MPH and operate out of Beef island today with no runway changes. There are bigger and faster turboprops coming!

All of that is true. Whether Delta along with others will be able to afford the pilots and staff to fly the the 50 seater jets is uncertain in the eyes of many. Time and the price of fuel and labor will be the primary factors and no one has a crystal ball to predict either one of those variables. Or maybe Congress will back track and reduce the safety limits Congress put on turboprops and small airline jets? Republic Airlines(the ghost of American Eagle) with 151 of those small jets and turbo props filed for bankruptcy at the end of February. The small 50 seater short hop business is no longer viable. The smartest and most experienced guys in the airline business have all run from it.

What is left out is the turboprop business case (if there is even one) starts falling apart at 300 mile legs. Going back to a BVI tourist model of flying to SJU, or one of the other Caribbean airports to take a turbo prop for one more leg is not a competitive model. No matter what the cost or how big the change and disruption to Trellis Bay the 1st World tourist business in the BVI is dependent on direct jet service from the US to Tortola. The future of Caribbean tourism is direct point to point jet service from the United States. We are not going back to 30 foot boats with air conditioning nor building 60's versions of the Holiday Inn. It is time to channel the energy towards making jet service to EIS work for everyone and creating the best possible outcome for a much changed Trellis Bay.

>300,000 overnight tourist spread evenly is +/-6,000 people each week. The plan is an equal number of tourist visitor 10 months out of the year. During the non peak month a good economy would see locals traveling the other direction on their own holiday or family visits.

Like many of my Canadian friends say. Skate to where the puck is going to be. Some seem to be trying to put the genie back in the bottle and skate to where the puck was long ago with some hope it will come back.

Sorry, this is not the way it works. What is in the suitcase is not bundles of $100 bills anymore, not more than it is gold nuggets. Those days are over. Your "real money" is just numbers in a file. And the file is in a shell company in Castro St.

And to move these numbers from a money laundering account in S America or a corruption tainted source in China etc, you don't send an email from your gmail account, and you don't use SWIFT. You go in person (or more likely send someone you really trust, like a cellist friend), and you make damned sure no US CISE agent sees your face or your passport.

In a nutshell the location is simply unsuitable for large jet operations. The BVI can lengthen the runway but unless they are going to move mountains it just does not work. There are currently no instrument approaches into EIS. Every Podunk airport I know has a GPS approach however you can't build one into EIS and meet the Terps criteria.
G

This is fascinating...learning lots about finance and aircraft!

Still why would a small country:
1. Embark on such a huge project that may damage its ecology/ beauty in the Trellis Bay Area when it is hugely unlikely that mass tourism will develop...and if it did would negatively affect its biggest tourist draw: charter yachting? The draw was 'natures little secret'.
2. Do so without ensuring employment/ involvement of a region where jobs / employment must be needed.
3. Looking at the more direct solution of ferries to St Thomas and flight link to SJU.

Building a new hospital is one thing... Not sure about the cruise pier - trying to get into bed with both the cruise industry and yacht charter industry might be risky ( both are potentially mobile enterprises). Time will tell. Love BVI but there are more interesting destinations than Road Town.

Not mine to say...it's their country but a shame to see their legacy sold. They have a special geography that works -would not capitalizing on their uniqueness work better that trying to be like the herd?

You are always on about the "best" visitors. My Goodness, you are an elitist! As Glenn has pointed out, currently, the vast majority of visitors to the BVI are in the upper middle and middle class. Do we just ignore them? Do we relegate them to the nasty old, smoke spewing ferries forever?



High speed ferries are no more difficult to maintain than airplanes, so let's get real here. The government has invested 7 million dollars in a company that may or may not help with airlift problems. It remains to be seen how that will pan out.

I have been on 2 hydrofoils in the last 5 years. Once the seas were very calm so I couldn't take away any "cons" from that experience. The other time, we had 8 to 10-foot seas and I didn't notice any "awful" motion ... so not sure where you are getting your information. It was bouncy to a degree, but nothing like it would be on a traditional ferry and speed was maintained throughout the trip which was 23 miles (approx.)

Obviously, design is a big part of a successful model. Some of the older hydrofoils would definitely fit into the questionable design category.



And your plan doesn't ignore the tens of countries that are circling the drain due to poor fiscal management? Please! Have you not heard of Greece, Venezuela or Puerto Rico? They are in dire straits financially because they overextended themselves to the point where they can no longer service even the interest on their debts. They are, for all intents and purposes, bankrupt. China is in trouble, so is Brazil, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa and others. In fact, there are dozens of countries in financial trouble because they have overspent for years and years and just like with any Ponzi scheme, the chickens eventually come home to roost. Of course, corruption has also played a role in several instances.




No thank you. Your "team" is not one I wish to be on. I prefer to float ... not crash and burn.

I have never heard of any leadership claim or plan of mass tourism. The plan is to just hold onto and improve the quality of the visitors that are already coming. Even the current young professionals accustomed to simply clicking everything online are not going to do the airplane, taxi, ferry dance. BVI tourism either gains direct major airline access or dies.

"The government has invested 7 million dollars in a company that may or may not help with airlift problems. It remains to be seen how that will pan out."

That is a very expensive short term patch to allow the business professionals to get in and out or South Florida until a long term airline solution can be completed.

You can try to shoot the messenger all you want. The story has been clear for a least a decade. Find a way to get higher end tourist. Here is Goal Number One straight from the BVI Government:

Increase the economic contribution of Tourism to the BVI by:
•Attracting a more discerning and higher spending visitor

See more at: http://www.bvitourism.com/vision-mission#sthash.kCXx7Nga.dpuf

Liane, you are confusing me with StormJib - I am for an improved ferry system, and against a new airport. I was merely making an observation about the USVI/BVI experience in the late 90s with the Russian hydrofoils. Thank you for the links, very interesting. I also read the wikipedia entry on hydrofoils which painted a pretty bright picture of them until you got to section 7 - "Disadvantages".

I guess I would be more concerned about hydrofoils and three things:

1) The BVI ferry operators being involved, playing nice and getting the maintenance done.
2) Time saved from the higher speeds possible, not making that much difference given the relatively short trip and delays due to C & I (at either end).
3) The reality of longer trips, that is, BVI to-and-from San Juan, and BVI to-and-from Sint Maarten, I still maintain what I said in an earlier post, "I think that the potential seas would make for some pretty crappy and/or canceled trips between San Juan and the BVI or the BVI and Sint Maarten in the winter months. As the old saying goes, "nothing goes to windward like a 747." Or even a Cessna 402! An STT -> EIS or SJU -> EIS flight with the Christmas winds blowing hard is not a big deal; an STT -> Road Town ferry ride will generally go in those conditions but... you get the idea.

The real problem with the current ferry system operators is their ill fit to the airlines' schedules, breakdowns/poor maintenance, canceling runs with little or no warning, and leaving considerably late. C & I at both ends are understaffed and handcuffed by multiple ferries arriving within 15 minutes of each other. (As I'm sure you well know.)

Anyway, as I said, not for the new airport, but really just don't like the lack of civility that is shown, especially towards my friend. I don't always agree with him either.

I will stay out of the long range debate but having spent 8 months last year to produce a 60 page report on the BVI ferry service I will say that your point #1 is the primary obstruction to a first class STT/BVI ferry service. The subject is too political and the government does not want to cross the families that own the ferries.

If the 3 companies would form a cooperative and work together with a central reservation system, an investment of less than $20 million could deliver hourly service between CA and West End on six new 100 passenger fast cats including an expansion of the West End ferry terminal.

As to the subject of "higher class" visitors, it is my observation that the typical middle class visitor has a much greater impact on the BVI ecconomy. Excluive resorts are isolated closed systems. For example, an oncologist friend claims to be a great fan of the BVI. He and his wife have spent two weeks for several years at Byras Creek. (BTW, They flew into STT and helicoptered to Byras.) But neither he nor his wife had ever heard of the Fat Virgin or Bitter End YC! What you see on the buffet at Peter Island never crossed the doors of Road Town Wholesale. The larger resorts provision through Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Aside from the hotel tax and a nominal income withholding the revenue from these exclusive resorts does not stay in the islands.

In contrast, us "low rent folks" stay in accomodations that were built by local labor and the rent we pay supports the cleaners, maintenance and yard workers and local supervisors. We rent cars from local businessmen, drink booze at locally owned bars, eat at locally owned restaurants and buy things from locally owned stores.

Glenn, There is more detail and other options here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVis7Tf5KA8

Ghads. Reminds me of The Eagles song - The Last Resort.
Call something paradise, kiss it goodbye.

Actually Glenn, there were some great Op-Eds in the Beacon written by Bailey Penn (from East End Tortola) recalling the construction of Little Dix which included lots of names of BVIslanders and exactly what they did during the construction phase. Bailey is about 65 and a real character. He went to the US and joined the USNavy, I believe, serving on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Viet Nam. His navy trade was electrician, and he worked as one for many years in the US after getting out of the service. He eventually returned to the BVI. I first employed him in '99 for some work, and have known him since. He has a very low opinion of the BVI work ethic (at least in the trades), and would continually say that his fellow Tortola electricians wouldn't last a minute in the US!

I think it is rather clear that I don't agree with the government on this matter. Anyway ... flogging/dead horses and all that. What you think ... or ... what I think means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. According to the government, the project is going ahead and I wish them well for all our sakes. No amount of beating anyone over the head is going to change their mind, so I am calling it a day on this one.

I believe this is a good point to put this dead horse out of its misery.