Business View Caribbean - Sept. / Oct. 2014

86 9LUJLQ ,VODQGV 6HSWHPEHU ‡ 2FWREHU ² &DULEEHDQ ‡ %XVLQHVV 9LHZ AT A GLANCE Coral World Ocean Park WHAT: Open-water marine park WHERE: WEBSITE: WHO: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands www.CoralWorldVI.com allows a far greater opportunity for personal interaction with trainers and other animal personnel. But it was through those sorts of comparisons – alongside gradual declines in the numbers of park visits being booked from cruise ships docking in St. Thomas – that both Kellar and Prior recognized a need to change the options being presented as Coral World’s standard “visitor experience.” No longer was simply seeing animals enough. Instead, more immersive opportunities were warranted. “We saw the handwriting on the wall,” Prior says. “People were not signing up for basic sightseeing tours at the park. We saw the numbers on the tours were dwindling. We weren’t sustaining the numbers that the business had before the hurricanes, so we knew we had to do something. “Interaction was the watch word of the new facilities being built.”