With most of the Caribbean islands caught in the wrath of hurricane Irma and then Maria, two category five hurricanes that hit land and made history, the message from the organisers of the BVI Spring Regatta is strong and clear: “We will be racing again! We want sailors to know to plan to come back and race in 2018,” says Regatta Director, Judy Petz who has been helping coordinate immediate supplies and fund raisers since disaster struck the beautiful islands just weeks ago.
Visiting yachtsmen will make an important contribution towards the recovery of tourism and the economy in the region. So let it be known the British Virgin Islands will be open for business. Please don’t put off your plans! It is intended that the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, will run out of Nanny Cay from 26th March to 1st of April 2018. It might not be in exactly the same format, but the organizers are focused on continuing with their plans.
BVI Traveller was created in September of 2017 to help tourism in the British Virgin Islands recover from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma.
To that end, we met our goals. In the past 7 years there have been over 1.2 million visits to the website and over 3 million pages have been viewed. There are over 1,000 pages on the site featuring news posts and detailed listings on all hotels, villas, restaurants and sailing charters located in the BVI. The BVI Government and many business, hotels, villas and sailing charters have all agreed that the site “moved the needle on tourism” after Irma.
The site, however, has run its course. It has served its purpose by bringing visitors and local businesses together to rebuild the tourist industry and it is now time to shut down operations for good.
I want to thank everyone for your help and support.
Chuck Metter
