Great Mountain Spring to become new 5th District tourist attraction
Speaking during the Fifth District Dialogues on Sunday, September 27, 2026, Honourable Rymer said a contract had recently been signed to advance the project.
Initial work began
The initial phase will include paving the area and improving access to the spring, which remains a consistent source of water.
“One thing that I’ve always spoken about is going up Great Mountain; there’s a natural spring,” Honourable Rymer said. “Before Shabbaz passed, that was a project that he always wanted to get done.”
He explained that the project is intended to benefit residents, visitors, tourists and taxi operators by creating another location that can be included in the Territory’s tourism product.
“We would have just signed a contract, so that we are starting to make that a tourist attraction,” he said. “We were put in the parking lot a year ago, and now we’ll be doing the paving and making sure that you can go into the spring, so that people, tourists, residents and visitors can go and see that area where there is always water.”
Improving tourism product for D5
The development is also expected to improve opportunities for taxi drivers, who can take visitors to the site. Honourable Rymer noted that the area includes a ruin, adding historical and cultural value to the attraction.
“For the taxi drivers as well, they can take the tourists in there,” he said. “There’s a fort—there’s a ruin in there as well.”
Honourable Rymer said the initiative is part of a wider effort to preserve the Territory’s culture, strengthen community life, and give visitors more experiences beyond the traditional beach tourism product.
“We are trying to keep culture alive here, and community,” he said, noting that there is “always a need for things for persons to do.”
He added that while visitors to the Virgin Islands often experience the beaches, the Territory must continue to identify and develop additional attractions that showcase its history, natural resources and communities.
“Persons coming to the island would have probably seen the beaches, and we need to find things for them to do,” Honourable Rymer said. “That is where we are playing our part and adding to the tourism product.”
In recognition of Shabbaz’s vision and contribution to the proposed development, Honourable Rymer said he hopes to name the completed attraction Shabbaz’s Lane.
Follow Us On
18 Responses to “Great Mountain Spring to become new 5th District tourist attraction”
Following Seatrade in 2025, you spoke about “enhancing the unique appeal of the BVI”. Following Seatrade in April this year, you stressed the need to give guests “something for them to do, without oversaturating our beaches”. Those statements recognise that attracting people here must be supported by worthwhile experiences when they arrive.
Your runway expansion statement also identified improved access and the opening of new tourism markets as benefits. That raises an equally important question: where is the corresponding plan to expand the places those additional guests can go and the things they can do?
Preserving the Great Mountain spring may have historical and community merit. However, respectfully, a small district project does not demonstrate that we are addressing the scale of the national challenge. If the priority is district visibility and political credit, rather than a meaningful contribution to a stronger destination, we are missing the mark entirely.
We cannot continue investing in bringing more people into the Territory, direct them towards the same limited selection of attractions, and then complain about congestion and being at capacity. We would be strengthening the critics’ argument through our own failure to develop sufficient alternatives.
This concern applies across tourism. Guests arriving by air or sea need variety, reliable access and experiences that hold their interest. Residents also deserve more places to enjoy.
Meanwhile, National Parks has proposed timed entry, rest days and reserved access at The Baths and Devil’s Bay. That makes coordination even more urgent. Plans to expand access to the Territory must account for proposed restrictions at established attractions and include a serious programme to develop additional capacity.
Where is that programme? Which sites are being developed, how will they connect, and how much demand will they accommodate? Are tour operators, drivers, guides and other businesses involved before contracts are signed, so that access, guest appeal and commercial viability inform the design?
At Great Mountain, that means understanding whether vehicles can safely pull off, unload, manoeuvre and leave, alongside what guests will experience and how the stop fits into a worthwhile itinerary.
Think bigger, Minister. Resources should be directed by national need and economic impact. Runway expansion, roads, attractions and site management must form part of one coherent plan. The ambition we show in bringing people here must be matched by the ambition we show in developing the destination they come to experience.
When does this end? Where is the ceiling? If we have 10 giant planes coming in per day, and we have 2-4 giant cruise ships per day, and we have even more charter boats (which are increasing still), and more, bigger hotels and Airbnb type of accommodations – yes, some of us will make some money, but who? Mostly the people with money already. And they will bring in a lot of immigrants to work on the islands, so BVI people will be even more outnumbered in the BVI.
What do we lose? We lose our country to foreign tourists who we have to serve like we are their servants and foreign workers who bring different cultures that impact our culture. We lose our natural places which become crowded and covered in buildings, boats, sewage and the same nature that people come here to experience turns into a theme park/ATM for a few big families. We lose our independence and resilience so we are completely relying on America's economy being strong enough to send us mass tourism, and when it is not we are done. So best case is we turn into an ugly, crowded, dependent country run by the same small group of big money gangsters who already have cash beyond anyone's dreams.
Re-wire your brain. Try to think about a future that actually works for the whole BVI and does not include growing and growing and growing until we don't have any land or nature left.
The depth these vote chasing scums would go to rob our dignity is criminal.