Dr The Honourable Kedrick D. Pickering (R7), Deputy Premier and Minister for Natural Resource and Labour, stated that tourism involves not just one person but everybody in the territory, while emphasising that whatever needs to be done to get the cruise industry up and running, it should be done. Photo: VINO

It was on December 6, 2017, exactly three months after Hurricane Irma, that the Marella Discovery first docked in the Virgin Islands. Photo: VINO/File

Residents banding together following the aftermath of Hurricane Irma to ensure the clean up of their communities. Photo: Facebook

“Tourism is everybody’s business or all of us is involved in tourism in some way or any other and that is the lesson that we need to get out to ensure that whatever needs to be done to get the cruise industry up and running it is done. We might think that it is the two operators that have a role to play. We might think it’s only the government, the tourist board, or ports authority but all of us, every single one of us has a role to play,” Hon Pickering said.

The Deputy Premier believes that while the territory rebuilds, it is important that the territory tell their story in the most “genuine and positive” way.

The minister explained, “The message that we send is what will ultimately save the day or destroy the day. We need a positive message that it’s a rebirth, it’s a rejuvenation, and it’s a renaissance that the BVI is going through.”

“We still have the natural beauty & the spirit of the people”

Dr Pickering also expressed that the territory still has the natural beauty, which includes the spirit of the people, and noted that whenever he travels, persons are always telling him about the spirit of the people, while indicating that it is the spirit of the people that tells the story of the Virgin Islands (VI).

“...the day after the hurricane when we were beaten down, battered and bruised, all of us know we had to get up and get rolling and we talk about resilience. Anywhere I travel that is what I hear people say, that we have heard so much about the spirit of the people of the [British] Virgin Islands.”

“We are like the duck”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Premier described the VI as a “duck” because he has been told that sometimes you don’t hear anything about what’s going on with the territory but pointed out that the territory is working hard.

He emphasised, “A lot of times they don’t even hear about us and they wonder what is happening but we are like the duck. The duck is a monument to success, cool, calm and collective but paddling furiously under the water to get to his destination, and that basically epitomises what we here in the BVI is all about. Despite what we’ve been through we keep rolling along. We are going to build back better, stronger and greener.”