As Acting Tourism Commissioner, I was amazed that the V.I. did not have a Tourism Web site. I thus stimulated the process of making a Web site the foundation of the Virgin Islands advertising program. I also knew from very early on that the cost could go anywhere. I knew of the tendency to go with IBM since both Ogilvy & Mather and the V.I. Government had IBM as existing clients.
But once again I am a firm believer in competition and wanted to pursue several avenues.
I conferred with our Caribbean brethren (including the Puerto Rico Tourism Authority which spent $100,000 on its Web site), industry leaders, travel agents and wholesalers. Several local and off-island firms submitted proposals from $5,000 to $100,000. I also knew Ogilvy and IBM wanted to spend more than $750,000.
The foundation of the Web site was to be several live Web cams from various locations in the Virgin Islands. A year and a half ago it was novel. Today it's probably normal.
I am not a computer geek, but I knew to talk to geeks to get the right answers.
Before I was fired in October 1999, no decisions were made. The staff and I were still gathering information to be able to send out an accurate Request for Proposal.
As time has shown, the Virgin Islands government time and again refuses to use competition and a level playing field as a tool of good government. Instead contracts are cooked with favoritism and cronyism.
If done right, the Web site could actually generate money for the department rather than costing money. Travel partners, tourist-oriented companies and computer companies could actually pay for the site.
It is most important that the travel agent market be protected and not bypassed.
It truly baffles me that Tourism is spending $700,000 on a Web site, given the competitive nature of the computer industry, the competitors' sites and our financial problems and existing Virgin Islands Web sites.
