The heads of the Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA) and the West Indian Company Ltd. (WICO) each said Wednesday that a proposed bill to shift management of Frederiksted’s Ann E. Abramson Pier to WICO is unlikely to increase St. Croix’s number of cruise ship visits.
According to the V.I. Bureau of Economic Research, St. Croix’s number of cruise ship visitors peaked in 2015 at 159,353. St. Thomas, which the cruise industry considers one of the Caribbean’s “big three” destinations along with St. Maarten and the Cayman Islands, hosts more than 1.5 million cruise guests during a typical year.
The 32nd Legislature’s Committee on Economic Development and Agriculture held an information gathering hearing on the bill (No. 32-0016) Wednesday. Sen. Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly, the bill’s sponsor, said it was initially conceived by her office six years ago.
O’Reilly said the bill’s intention is to put the management of St. Croix’s cruise ship facilities in the hands of WICO, who she said has a proven record of success at the territory’s primary cruise dock in Charlotte Amalie. St. Croix’s cruise ship pier is operated by VIPA, as is the Austin “Babe” Monsanto Marine Terminal in Crown Bay, St. Thomas.
VIPA Executive Director David Mapp said that although the Abramson Pier does not bring in enough revenue to meet its operational expenses, the authority’s Crown Bay terminal is a financially successful facility.
“Pointedly, Austin ‘Babe’ Monsanto Marine Terminal serves as proof positive that VIPA too is versed in successful cruise ship operations,” Mapp said.
He and other testifiers including WICO President Clifford Graham, agreed that Frederiksted’s limited success as a cruise port has not been due to VIPA’s handling of the pier.
“The critical matter remains the Virgin Islands’ product offering,” said Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty. “Cruise ships call on ports that provide unique experiences, which their passengers demand, and where the shore excursions make money.”
Nicolson-Doty, Mapp, and Graham all said that feedback they receive from cruise lines indicate St. Croix does not offer enough on-shore excursions, which cruise lines make money on by selling them to their passengers.
Graham said it is difficult for the private sector to offer excursions without knowing there are enough cruise passengers to make them profitable, but at the same time, cruise lines often bypass destinations without a proven record of profitable excursions.
“St. Croix is suffering from the old adage: which comes first the chicken or the egg?” Graham said.
When Nicholson-Doty echoed those sentiments, Sen. Sammuel Sanes expressed frustration.
“Unfortunately we’ve been asking that question for a number of years, and at one point or another we have to take a stand,” he said.
Cruise lines’ frequent decision to bypass St. Croix does not correlate with the impressions of passengers who do dock at the island. A recent survey of passengers who visited St. Croix aboard the ships of some of the world’s largest cruise companies indicates that over 80 percent rated the island an excellent or good destination.
According to Mapp, VIPA has offered various incentives to entice more cruise ships to St. Croix, including waivers of port fees, two-for-one discounts, and lower fuel costs through St. Croix’s bunkering operations. All failed to have a significant impact.
Sen. Tregenza Roach said he felt a great deal of ambivalence about the aims of O’Reilly’s bill.
“I don’t see how this will address any deficiencies with St. Croix as a destination,” Roach said. “I certainly can’t see how it’s going to address the issue of our declining product, in general.”
Cruise ship visits to the Virgin Islands were in decline prior to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, mainly due to increasing regional competition.
Roach said officials should be focusing on improving the territory’s tourism product to keep its primary cruise ship port at Charlotte Amalie competitive. He suggested that a focus on smaller luxury ships might be a more profitable strategy for St. Croix, and the territory as a whole.
Testifiers at Wednesdays hearing also had other concerns about transferring management of the Abramson Pier to WICO. Graham said the cost of travel for WICO management between St. Croix and the public corporation’s headquarters on St. Thomas would cut further into the already insufficient revenue brought in by the pier.
Mapp said WICO tried its hand at managing Frederiksted’s facility decades ago with the aim of increasing cruise traffic to St. Croix. WICO ended that brief period of management after deciding it was a “herculean task.”
“I remind this august body that this ‘experiment’ was tried once before, during the Schneider Administration,” said Mapp. “After one year, WICO voluntarily removed itself from managing the cruise ship solicitations and bookings for the Ann E. Abramson Marine Facility.”
The committee ultimately voted to hold the bill in committee. It also voted to hold two other bills.
– Bill No. 32-0104, which proposes a feasibility study be conducted for a composting program in the territory, was held due to a lack of a funding source for the study and concerns that it would be redundant.
According to Commissioner of Agriculture Carlos Robles and Chairman of the V.I. Waste Management Authority Board Harith Wickrema, officials already have enough evidence to know that a composting program would be beneficial in the V.I.’s waste management strategy.
Wickrema, who will be leaving his position at VIWMA on Friday, said skipping the study and heading straight into a small pilot program would be his preference if funding can be identified.
When asked by Sen. Dwayne DeGRaff if the VIWMA has money to conduct the study, Wickrema said, “Senator, we don’t have money. So without any funds, we can’t pay our own vendors on a regular basis.”
The bill was written by Sen. Sanes before September’s hurricanes, and is not related to the territory’s efforts to manage storm debris.
– Bill No. 32-0096, which aims to clarify language regarding local hiring requirements under the V.I.’s Economic Development Program and to strengthen some penalties for non-compliance, was held after testifiers said the bill actually confuses rather than clarifies who is a V.I. resident.
Wayne Biggs Jr., acting chief executive officer at V.I. Economic Development Authority, and Commissioner of Labor Catherine Hendry supported some aspects of the bill, but said the V.I. Code’s existing definition of “resident” for the purposes of the EDA are superior to the bill’s proposed change.
“The bill as written actually increases the number of people who qualify and opens up floodgates to non-local hiring,” Hendry said.
All votes taken at Wednesday’s hearing were unanimous among committee members present for each vote.
Present were Sens. O’Reilly, DeGraff, Roach, Sanes, Kurt Vialet, Neville A. James, Positive T.A. Nelson and non-committee member Novelle Francis Jr.
Sen. Brian Smith was excused from the hearing.
Sanes and Roach were absent during the vote to hold bills No. 32-0016 and 32-0096.
O’Reilly, Vialet and Sanes were absent during the vote to hold bill No. 32-0104.
