Dickson C. Igwe Photo: VINO/File

Investment in the West End Ferry Dock and supporting infrastructure is more critical to the Virgin Islands Gross Domestic Product than any other investment. Spending on the West End Ferry Port will give greater ‘’bang for the buck’’ than investment in lengthening the runway, and airport expansion, at Terrance B Lettsome Airport.

The airport expansion scheme, which has seen millions of dollars of taxpayer cash already spent, remains a doubtful proposal, and questionable investment. Why: because as any traveller will state, Terrance B Lettsome will never be able to compete with Cyril E King Airport in Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands. It is that simple!

And, from the West End of Tortola, Cyril E King Airport, Charlotte Amalie, is a very short and pleasant ferry ride: approximately 30 minutes. Then, once on a plane at Cyril E King Airport Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, and a host of US cities, are a short plane ride away.

From the USA, the entire world is an oyster. The USA possesses the world’s most powerful airline network.

Consequently, West End Dock is a type of feeder into and out of the USA, and investment in the ferry port promises a greater return on capital employed, and a better risk investment than investing in any other port of entry, in the British Virgin Islands.

The West End ferry dock is a ‘’bridgehead and beachhead’’ linking the British Virgin Islands to the USA through Cruz Bay St John, Red Hook, and Charlotte Amalie. The greatest source of travellers into the British Virgin Islands, are travellers from the United States. The USA key port of entry into the Virgin Islands, British and USA, is Cyril E King Airport, in Charlotte Amalie.

In terms of air travel power, and traveller traffic to the Virgin Islands archipelago, Cyril E King Airport is omnipotent. The West End Dock further services Jost Van Dyke another BVI tourist destination.

Travelling by ferry, to and from the West End, from the United States Virgin Islands, cuts the length of time of a 60-minute ferry ride using the Road Town Dock, by half. It offers travellers extra travel options. It will further lift pressure off Road Town Ferry Dock by easing traveller and cargo traffic at the Road Town Ferry Dock.

The prospect of increasing the number of travellers into the BVI from St Thomas, and growing BVI tourism, depends on how well the British Virgin Islands can leverage the flow of passengers from the United States and getting a significant number into the BVI to overnight. That is best done by leveraging US travellers in the USVI. 

This will mean customs and immigration desks and personnel, resident in the USVI, driving swift customs and immigration protocols and clearance at Cyril E King Airport in Charlotte Amalie, Charlotte Amalie Ferry Harbor, and Red Hook. BVI customs and immigration protocols in the USVI can become a brand new entry process that speeds up bureaucracy and should be carried out by BVI appointed agents residing in the USVI.

It will enable swift entry into West End and Road Town by US tourists, after a quick police check for weapons at the entry points in the West End and Road Town docks and ferry ports.

The immediate impact of a greater flow of travelers into West End will be quickly felt by taxi drivers, car rental firms, and west end hotels, such as Nanny Cay, Sebastians, Long Bay, Frenchman’s Cay, Banankeet, Quitos, Denzil Clyne Villas, and Stanley Hodge villas, who will see a significant increase in their business, that has suffered since that port of entry went out of business.

As traveller traffic increases into the Virgin Islands from West End, driven by innovative thinking, the velocity of cash in the Virgin Islands economy will increase, this will lead to the expansion of the tourism business.

As tourism expands, there will be a need for greater numbers of hotel rooms. Car rental firms will have to purchase more vehicles. Restaurants will see expansion. There will be an increase in employment and greater security of tenure for those at work in tourism, especially workers in the West End.

But all of the preceding depends on increasing the traveller traffic from the United States into the British Virgin Islands through the United States Virgin Islands.

West End port development and supporting infrastructure development has got to be a top priority.

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