Cruise Ship Passengers Unhappy with St. Croix

Gov. Kenneth Mapp has outlined one of the key issues St. Croix faces in trying to attract more tourists: the expectation of cruise line customers is great, but those expectations are often unsatisfied.

The result? Visitors leave having been underwhelmed by St. Croix.

Mapp's comments came during a meeting of the Public Finance Authority, of which the governor is the chairman. The discussion was about efforts to keep tenants afloat in the Frederiksted Mall, but morphed into a monologue by Mapp about one aspect of what is limiting the number of cruise companies that choose to visit St. Croix.

"At the SeaTrade convention in February, when we sat with the cruise line executives - and I do mean the executive CEOs - they presented myself, the commissioner of Tourism, the Port Authority director and members of the board of Port Authority and West Indian Co., literally their analysis of the cruise passengers' perception of each of the Caribbean islands, in terms of how they grade them, and I was in awe to see that, of all of the island destinations, St. Croix had the highest rating in terms of expectation," Mapp said as the board listened.

On a satisfaction scale, St. Croix had the widest gap of all the Caribbean islands, Mapp said. "So while it was rated at a point of 88 out of 100 in terms of expectation of what one would do at that destination," he said, meaning the fun visitors would have and the fond memories they would take with them, "their actual rating of their experience was very low, and it was a big gap between expectation and delivery."

In other words, people want and expect to have a great time on St. Croix. What happens, though, doesn't match their expectations, he said.

"There's a lot of things we can do to close that gap, and the ability to close that gap" could translate into more cruise lines stopping and staying longer, he said.

"The cruise lines aren't quick to carry people there because the dissatisfaction level is just too high," Mapp said. "The experience on the island is shallow."

The facts are carried in the numbers: 77 cruise ships are scheduled to call on St. Croix between this week and April 2016. St. Thomas expects more than 300 ships in the same time frame.

Visitors arriving by cruise ship say they spend too much time on St. Croix, Mapp said, and too little on St. Thomas.

"In St. Thomas, folks are complaining that they're not getting enough time on the island; they feel rushed and put back on the ships. Where in St. Croix, they feel they are spending too much time on the island because there's not enough to do."

Mapp said smart investment in Frederiksted and other parts of the island could pay off handsomely as tourists from the continent and around the world look for more and more excitement and a return on their travel-time investment.

Board member Keith O'Neale Jr. said businesses in the Frederiksted Mall can't sell high-end products like those found at shops in other tourist-targeted areas.

"Some of the people who have businesses in that mall, they're not in Little Switzerland," O'Neale said. "It's hard to make a good bit of money. When you're selling diamonds or perfume it's one thing, but when you're selling T-shirts and postcards" then the profit margin is limited.

Mapp agreed. "Investments are going to be required to help St. Croix become a more successful cruise passenger destination," he said.

But visitors - shoppers - follow the lead of local business. On St. Croix, that leads away from the port.

"We have this tendency to just whisk everybody to Christiansted," Mapp said. "I don't know if we're doing all of what we need to do to help also make Frederiksted a destination town. Not that folks shouldn't go to Christiansted, but they shouldn't get off the boat, get in all the cars and then travel off to Christiansted" without a glance at the port town.

"Then we bring them back to the dock, and they go back on the boat. It's quite a common experience. That's not helping to motivate other businesses to come into the city," he said.

Mapp's answer is to create experiences for visitors, "diverse experiences that people can have on St. Croix." When that happens, "then you're going to see cruise business moving upward on St. Croix."

Source: (US) Virgin Islands Daily News