The Westin Beach Resort & Spa and The Seaborn at Frenchman's Reef set to reopen
ANN RUPPENSTEIN
The U.S. Virgin Islands’ accommodation sector is about to get a boost back to booming 2017 levels prior to the devastating impact of hurricanes Irma and Maria. This winter will see the opening of The Westin Beach Resort & Spa and The Seaborn at Frenchman’s Reef in St. Thomas.
“It’s finally coming back online as two properties, 500 rooms, one in the main building, which is the upper part of the property, which will be a Westin property and then down on the beach, an Autograph Collection hotel,” said USVI Department of Tourism Commissioner Joseph Boschulte. “We’ve had the opportunity to go visit it, it’s going to be stunning.”
Meanwhile, some recent new additions include Lovango Resort and Beach Club in St. John, which includes luxury tree houses and glamping tents, and Divi Carina Bay Beach Resort and Casino, St. Croix’s only adult-only, all-inclusive resort.
“It was also destroyed by the hurricanes and is looking absolutely beautiful,” he added.
As for the potential for nonstop lift from Canada, he told Travel Courier that conversations with several Canadian carriers are set for this month.
“The Canadian market is one of our top three priorities as international destinations,” he shared. “We are very hopeful that we can get some agreement on traffic from Canada. Our focus right now is out of the Toronto area. Hopefully we can get a deal done.”
Notably, he said the demand for fall and holiday season is exceeding 2019 levels.
“The Caribbean tourism industry has led the world in recovering from the pandemic,” he said. “And the USVI has been at the forefront of the region’s recovery. As of September 14, the USVI saw a 44% increase in overall destination arrivals compared to 2019.”
Reflecting back on the pandemic, he said there was a period of time “I never thought I’d see in my lifetime — 18 months without a cruise ship — and for us in the USVI, 70% of our traffic before the pandemic was from cruise.”
Boschulte pointed out that many visitors come to the territory for the first time via cruise ships as St. Thomas is one of the most visited cruise ports in the Caribbean.
“That’s how they get introduced to the destination. We’re three islands in the middle of the Caribbean, there has to be some way for people to get to us and the most efficient means for a long time has been by cruise,” he said, adding that cruise arrivals complement overnight visitors. “We’re happy to have them back.”
Another positive sign for growth is that the Virgin Islands Port Authority recently signed a new memorandum of agreement with Royal Caribbean to develop the cruise industry in both St. Thomas and St. Croix.
“It will increase threefold the number of passengers going into St. Croix next year, from 50,000 to 150,000 people,” he said.
Meanwhile Crown Bay in St. Thomas will see an additional 70% more passengers.
During the pandemic, he said many trips were booked within two weeks of departure but booking windows are now correcting back to the 60 to 90 days out.
“Things are starting to move back to how it used to be before, people book a lot further in advance which is good for us as we try to manage our airlift.”
