December 24th, 2018
One month after Irma hit the BVI I got the idea for BVI Traveller as a great way to organize all of the information that was being posted on Facebook regarding the recovery effort. Well, it’s been almost fifteen months since my website was launched and I can honestly say I had no idea that the response would be so overwhelming. The site has gotten over 350,000 visits and 700,000 page views to date. Nearly 7,000 people have signed up for the mailing list while my posts have been liked and shared over 50,000 times on Facebook.
I want to take the time to thank everyone who has visited, shared or linked to BVI Traveller. I would also like to thank everyone who has emailed me about their’s or someone else’s business being open plus those who have just emailed me with a questions regarding who’s open. I have even gotten some phone calls! I will be back on island in January and hope to visit many of the businesses I have posted about during my visit. Please keep the emails coming so I can keep updated on who’s open.
This holiday season please take a moment to remember those in the BVI who have had to endure the havoc wreaked by Irma and Maria. Give whatever support you can and, lastly, please make sure to visit the BVI soon. You will be pleasantly surprised by the progress they have made.
Regards
Chuck Metter
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