Mrs Sharon P. Flax-Brutus has said the Virgin Islands (VI) has come a very long way in terms of its tourism product following the devastation of Hurricane Irma in 2017. Photo: YouTube

According to Mrs Sharon P. Flax-Brutus, post Hurricane Irma, tourism on Anegada helped keep tourism in the wider Virgin Islands alive. Photo: Internet Source

Mrs Sharon P. Flax-Brutus has suggested that the Virgin Islands explore adventure tourism. Photo: BVI Excursions

Speaking on Beyond the Horizon’s third episode today, Tuesday, February 3, 2026, she said, “Post [Hurricane] Irma, I do have to tell you we’ve come a very long way. Some persons felt that a lot of our product was destroyed, so we should just kind of pack it in for a little bit. The beauty of the BVI is we have sixty islands, islets, rocks and keys; not all of those sixty islands were destroyed, so it was let’s look at the ones we can get the product up.”

She said this is one of the reasons Anegada is where it is today. 

The future of tourism in the VI 

Describing herself as a Tourism Experience Curator, Flax-Brutus also opined on the direction tourism in the VI is taking and should be taking. 

“We’re fast becoming known as a villa destination and a villa destination that provides luxurious and varied products that is on par with anything you can find on St Barts.”

Adventure Tourism, she added, should be explored more, in addition to Event Tourism, which would appeal to the demographic the VI is looking to attract. 

“Those are things that people, the demographic that we are looking for, would travel for something like that.”

Exploring new areas in the tourism space is nothing new for the VI. Flax-Brutus explained that when Culinary Tourism was first getting underway here, the VI was not known in that space. 

“If you look at it now, you can even have an Omakase Japanese dining experience here on Virgin Gorda; we have celebrity chefs of our own…those are some of the areas that I see us going to in the future that make for developing tourism.”

VI is uniquely positioned 

Flax-Brutus said the VI is also geographically uniquely positioned. 

“We’re not too hard to get to. We have the infrastructure in place with the telecommunications. We’re increasing our accessibility in terms of air and even sea access.”

These, she explained, are some of the factors investors consider when seeking to invest in the VI’s tourism fabric.