Business View Caribbean - October 2016 35
restaurant, and shopping facilities.
Getting tourists to come to BVI is crucial to the eco-
nomic lifeblood of the territory. “We suffered a down-
turn in our tourism product after 9/11, because
persons were not keen on travelling for a little while
after,” Vanterpool explains. “That has rebounded quite
well. We got a little bit of slowdown after the 2008
recession, but, fortunately, we’ve been growing fairly
steadily from a tourism standpoint, especially since
2010-11, and up until now. Our visitors, by the end of
2015, would have surpassed 400,000, compared to
in the low 300s a few years back.” The new pier facili-
ties helped BVI secure contracts with two of the major
cruise companies – Disney and Norwegian – who have
guaranteed the territory 425,000 passengers on an
annual basis. “Along with other ships, we are already
projecting in 2016, about 700,000 passengers for the
year,” Vanterpool exclaims.
In order to build the new cruise pier, Vanterpool says
that $50 million was borrowed from local banks with
another six or seven million raised from local inves-
tors, both sectors forming another major pillar of the
BVI economy. “We have been fortunate to be very at-
tractive to banks and financing,” Vanterpool admits.
Recently, he adds that the government borrowed an-
other $35 million for an expansion of the territory’s
electricity generation; it is planning to add another 24
megawatts of power to its current 40MWs. In addition,
the Ministry generally budgets about $30 million per
Minister Vanterpool meets with Virgin Gorda residents
