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by pltm
(PLTM) - The BVI Tourist Board (TB) is shooting to record one million tourist arrivals by the end of this year. Tourism Director, Sharon Flax-Brutus made this disclosure at the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTU) annual State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC) held in Barbados from September 13th - 17th. She said that they intend to increase the annual number of visitors from 922,000 in 2015 to a million by December. The Director also said that overall, there has been an increase in arrivals from January through June 2016. She indicated that overnight arrivals are up by 3.5 percent; cruise arrivals have increased by 48 percent; and day-trippers from the United States Virgin Islands are up by 58 percent. However, Flax-Brutus was cautious, mentioning the temporary closure of Rosewood Little Dix Bay Resort on Virgin Gorda (VG) for renovations. She disclosed that visitors spent $450 million last year, but that resort's closure can put a damper on this year's forecast. Earlier this year, the Tourism Director expressed concerns over lack of adequate financial support from government. To this end, she gave a clear example of where marketing of the Territory's tourism product is not receiving enough financial support. She said that neighbouring U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) pumps $17.5M to market their destination and recently allocated an additional $700,000, while the BVI allocated $4.2M towards their marketing efforts. Flax-Brutus stated that $1.8M is being spent on public relations agencies in places such as New York for the USA market, United Kingdom (UK), Germany, France, Italy and Puerto Rico. She said that the figures for agents have decreased and they are trying to be tough negotiators, given the budget. Flax-Brutus went on to state that it would help if the BVI as a destination up their profile through television advertising, but based on budgets, they have to be very strategic because it is very expensive.
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