Governor of the US Virgin Islands Kenneth E. Mapp. Photo: VINO

“We are not expanding the airport targeting BVI customers but expanding the airport and recognizing that about 25% of our passengers coming through the terminal are destined to the British Virgin Islands. It is in our best interest then, to provide levels of accommodation and support that facilitate those passengers to their final destination,” said the USVI Governor yesterday October 16, 2018, noting that the move will make the airport a friendlier and comfortable one

One day visit

Governor Mapp was on a one-day visit to the Virgin Islands at the invitation of local radio talk show, Honestly Speaking with Claude O. Skelton-Cline on which Mapp was the main guest. According to Mapp, it was only fitting that he; in addition to making courtesy calls on Governor of the VI August J. U. Jaspert, grasped the opportunity to meet with members of the media.

Further in his response, Govern Mapp noted that the way the Cyril E. King Airport terminal is now set up, it cannot handle the traffic that comes through as persons have to arrive about four hours before their departure time and are made to haul their baggage for an extended check-in system in extensively long lines.

“I know that the BVI is a tremendous part of the Virgin Islands economy. Folks come to the BVI and shop and purchase all sort of stuff. Folks order things from the US mainland that come through Saint Thomas, folks from the BVI travel through Saint Thomas to visit families and to attend to their medical needs. Tourists destined to the BVI come through Saint Thomas so there is no question that the British Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islanders provide a significant contribution to the US economy,” Mapp said.

Strong bond

When it was put to Governor Mapp that the intended expansion of his local airport and ferry terminals are to ensure what they currently enjoy from this territory is maintained, he responded, “I don’t want to underscore or liquidate the value of Virgin Islanders contribution to the BVI economy. I don’t want us to have a conversation that it’s a one-way process because it isn’t a one-way process. Let’s just be candid, our relationship in the USVI and the British Virgin Islands is one of family,” Governor Mapp stated.

“So I don’t want to give the impression or leave the impression that somehow our investments in our ports and in our structure is because we just want to take from the BVI,” lamented the Governor.

“We are related,” he further stressed, “Plain and simple we are related. We are not together, our blood is in each other’s veins and just how the British Virgin Islanders come through the USVI and contribute to their economy, so does Virgin Islanders (US) come to the BVI and contribute to the economy here.”

He further said, “Why would a person who lives 45 miles or 15 miles north on a boat living on Saint Croix get in a boat right after a hurricane… Come all the way across here during Irma to rescue folks, to look for folks to make sure folks were safe if they weren’t interconnected, weren’t tied together?”

“So we in this Caribbean basin, notwithstanding the flags that we fly, we enjoy a bond, we enjoy family relationship that makes us who we are and but for the flag – I have to agree with Governor Turnbull – we really are just the greater Virgin Islands – the British Virgin Islands and the US Virgin Islands,” said Mapp.