TAXI AND LIVERY OPERATORS ALREADY REAPING BENEFITS FROM THE RECENT RETURN OF CRUISE SHIPS TO THE TERRITORY WITH MORE THAN 3500 PASSENGERS RECORDED IN TWO DAYS

Tourism is back and booming in the British Virgin Islands as taxi operators are already starting to reap the benefits of the more than 3500 cruise ship passengers who visited the territory over the last two days.

This is according to Director of the Taxi and Livery Commission Jevaughn Parsons who made the statement during an interview with 284News on Thursday November 11.

More than 20 cruise ship vessels are scheduled to berth into the BVI in the month of November and according to Parsons, things are starting to look very promising among taxi and livery operators.

He said, “To say the least, tourism is back and booming in the BVI. Today is our second two-ship day, we had our first two-ship day yesterday with passengers coming off and free flowing. Today is more of the same and our taxi operators are very thankful and grateful for the opportunity to be back out there in what they do as service in the BVI and showing the tourists what they’ve missed for the last 18-months.

An estimated 3600 passengers between Wed-Thurs

Director Parsons estimated that approximately 3600 cruise passengers visited the BVI between Wednesday and Thursday this week, and said he expects those numbers to gradually climb.

“Yesterday (Wednesday) we had 1700 and today we have approximately 1900 coming to the territory. I got a message last weekend and the highlight of that message was that even though we have an active schedule for the month of November into December, we have six cruise lines calling and interested in coming to the BVI amidst the schedule that already exists. So it’s promising to be a very very active season and I like the outlook and the trajectory of what I’ve seen thus far. The protocols are in place and we’re ready to receive,” he explained.

No issues with new sanitization protocols

The taxi and livery boss also revealed that there have been no issues to date with the new mandatory sanitization protocol which requires all taxi operators to have their vehicles completely sanitized following a tourist trip or tour.

In fact, he said the process has so far been perfect.

He said, “That has been working flawlessly. They are in compliance. After they do their trips or their tours when they get back to the cruise pier and they load off their guests they’re expected to do a stop in with taxi and livery inspectors and sanitise their bus and log and then they’re on their merry way.”

“It is a short process, depending on the size of the vehicle and like I said they are very much in compliance. I haven’t really had any qualms from taxi operators thus far and we’re off to a great start,” Parsons further stated.