Tourism Commissioner Joseph Boschulte delivered an optimistic report to the Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance on Tuesday, highlighting the tourism industry’s “record-breaking” number of visitors to the territory.
He said that in this fiscal year, airlines have added 971 new flights, which, combined with additional hotel capacity, has contributed to a healthy growth rate of hotel bookings. He mentioned the opening of the Pink Palm and the re-opening of two properties at Frenchman’s Reef: the 392-room Westin Beach Resort & Spa and the 94-room Morningstar Buoy Haus Beach Resort.
He added that hotel tax collections surpass 2023 revenues by 24 percent, at $35,934,054 year-to-date as of May 2024.
According to the department figures, this forecast tracks to surpass revenue collections in the 2022 record year of $57.8 million.
Senate President Novelle Francis complimented Boschulte on his department’s work and then asked why the department was not paying its bills.
Boschulte said the department was doing everything possible to pay local vendors the $1.7 million owed. He added that marketing firms were also owed $4 million.
“Tourism is our number one industry and is not paying its bills,” Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory, chair of the committee, said. She added if the situation were not rectified soon, the department’s credibility as a tourism department would quickly head south.
“Five months is a long time for a man to wait to get paid,” Sen. Franklin Johnson said.
Vendors were not the only ones not receiving what was owed to them. Some employees who had wage increases approved a year ago had still not seen them. “It does not go well with me when people are not getting paid,” Johnson said.
Another concern Frett-Gregory raised is the lack of a golf course on St. Thomas. She said if Mahogany Run did not reopen, there was nowhere a course could be built on St. Thomas. Boschulte said there were occasions when groups learned there was no golf course on St. Thomas and decided to go elsewhere. The University of Virgin Islands has a few practice holes on its St. Thomas campus, but they are not of the caliber to attract tourists. St. Croix has two high-end golf courses and another course that would attract mid-level golfers.
Mahogany Run has been closed since the 2017 hurricanes. Boschulte said several potential buyers have made inquiries, but nothing has come of them. Frett-Gregory said the government should try to bring the course back to life. According to the National Golf Foundation, one-fifth of all public golf courses in the United States are owned by government entities.
Boschulte said the territory had 1.7 million cruise passengers arrive on 495 ships in 2023. At the Ann E. Abramson Marine Facility, St. Croix’s number grew from 54,827 to 159,658 from 2019 to 2023. Between WICO and Crown Bay, St. Thomas welcomed 1,613,554 passengers.
The budget presented for 2025 is the same as it was for 2024: $34.4 million.
Sens. Marvin Blyden, Diane Capehart, Samuel Carrión, Dwayne DeGraff, Ray Fonseca, Novelle Francis, Donna Frett-Gregory, Kenneth Gittens, Javan James and Franklin Johnson attended the hearing.
