Sept. 25, 2002 – Tourism Commissioner Pamela Richards is back on St. Croix this week after deciding not to go to Cancun, Mexico, to attend the 9th annual conference of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association this week.
Richards said on Wednesday that she was attending an airport management conference in Tampa, Florida, last weekend and planned to head to Cancun from there, when she got news of Tropical Storm Lili being headed for the Virgin Islands.
In Tampa, "We were monitoring Isidore," the hurricane then attacking Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula coastline, she said, "when we heard another storm was approaching the V.I. So I called VITEMA [the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency] to find out about the storm in the territory — and decided to return to the V.I., since I am part of the governor's cabinet."
Richards said reports at the time about Isidore were confusing. "The airlines would tell us one thing, that flights were operating, and then CNN said the storm was heading for Cancun, and it was being evacuated," she said.
At the weeklong F-CCA conference, Richards was scheduled to participate in a panel discussing cruise ship "conversion" programs, which refers to turning cruise visitors into returning overnight hotel guests. She said the panel could go on without her, since there five other members.
A Tuesday report in a print newspaper said Richards was attending the conference to present the Tourism Department's plan to persuade cruise lines to send their ships back to St. Croix. Richards said on Wednesday that she submitted that report in August, and her planned appearance at the F-CCA conference had "nothing to do with trying to lure cruise ships to the territory." The newspaper said she was "scheduled to lobby major cruise lines about a possible return to St. Croix."
Richards said it had been her intent as a panelist to explain the Tourism Department's "Free Stay Caribbean" program wherein hotel guests who book a five-night stay get two extra nights free. And, Richards said, "We have gone one step further, and included the Charter Yacht League in the program."
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