Jet Blue rumors...

Trade:

I've never heard of St. Crime either.

But I do remember the FV incident...it was big news here on the mainland back then.....a high profile story...it gave STX and the VIs, in general, a bad reputation..........and from the above comments that bad reputation still lingers on.

F.I.

Some believe people will focus on the negative, others think all that is forgotten in time.
I rest my case.

Doesn't matter if there is negative attention as long as those spreading the positive word speak louder. What it comes down to is getting the name out there and having companies put together some killer vacation packages. It's beautiful here and from my experience so far people have been more than friendly.

The way people talk in these forums had me unnecessarily worried. Maybe my view is skewed because I just spent a year in Afghanistan but I feel comfortable enough walking around on my own...

In the 6 years I've lived here, I occasionally get a question about the mruders from tourists. I simply confirm the event, say it was an isolated incident years ago (it certainly was that) and move on to talking about the best snorkeling spots. I have no idea who/what the other name refers to.

I also tell visitors, truthfully, that I'm an older woman (I try to get away with calling myself middle-aged, but that's not gonna work for much longer - lol) who moves around the island freely without problem or fear for her dafety..

Surprised you haven't heard the St. Crime comment, I got it quite a bit when I stayed at Frenchie's and even in town from a bartender. This was a few years ago, I haven't been over to STT in a while. I had several St. Thomian's ask me about crime in St. Croix, this was probably 2006-2007 timeframe, and the insinuation was that crime here was somehow much worse or different than it was there. I was surprised, I never really thought there was much of a difference: from looking in the blotter in the Avis/VIDN there sure doesn't seem to be.

I also did the dumbest thing I ever did in my life when I was staying at Frenchies, I left my backpack with about $3000 worth of gear in the lower lobby of the hotel at check in. I didn't realize I left it until 11pm that night. Security had cataloged everything, found my VI DL in the backpack and I got everything back. The first thing they said to me is "this wouldn't have happened in St. Crime." This was about the 3rd time that day I had heard to STX referred to this way so maybe I wrongly assumed that this was common based on sheer coincidence. Despite the rub against the big island I still am partial to the Marriot as they really saved me that day and security staff was excellent.

Sean

Ishmael Labeet was a ST Thomian (1972), who now resides in Cuba. His half brother Shawn Labeet was just shot to death in florida (2007)for shooting 4 Miami Dade county police Officers killing one of them. Might be a good retort for bar talk.

“No one probably knows what LaBeet looks like anymore. He could be right here on St. Thomas for all anyone knows,” Krim Ballentine said.
So, he could be in STT!

But, in STT our claim to the Fountain Vally Murders claim is:
One of the Fountain Valley convicts, Joseph, was legally given his freedom at the end of 1994. In his last days in office, then-Gov. Alexander A. Farrelly granted Joseph a pardon, an action that Farrelly took much flak for but never explained.

So, in recognition of freeing a mass murderer, who crushed STX as a tourist destination we named The Alexander A. Farrelly Justice Center after him!!!!

Okay...What do you think of when I say "Dallas?" To this day, I believe a large number of folks would say "JFK was killed there." Well, maybe, "Who killed J.R?" 😛 Same thing with St Croix. First thing that comes to my mind is Fountain Valley. You can't get beyond it. The race card players in the community seem to enjoy the notoriety.

How would I market St Croix? I think it has to be the only large island that is NOT overrun with cruise ships and they should capitalize on that. Tortola used to have a similar campaign, but they went the way of all Caribbean destinations. Ecotourism is a catch phrase, but that is what marketing is, I guess. Why do they not sell trips to Sandy Point for turtle monitoring? Hiking tours? Agricultural tours?

IMHO, if you try to market to the cruise crowd, you will end up with ticky-tacky tourists.

I have never heard of St Crime, but I am sure tired of waitstaff (who have lived on St John for all of 3 weeks) calling St Thomas "St Trauma"...

Wow! Can someone help me down off this soap box??:-o

There was a meeting at the Divi prior to the cruise ships coming back to St Croix. During a discussion about how to keep the tourists safe, a resident spoke up and said something like, "Make it safe for me. Make it safe for our residents to go to the beach, walk around town etc and it will automatically be safe for the tourists." There it lies in a nutshell.

Word of mouth will spread much faster than any marketing campaign we can devise. In fact, it's quite possible that the more people we lure to this island before some of the major issues are addressed will only serve to harm tourism in the long run. We may get a quick flush of cash but we'll have a lot more folks stateside advising their friends to stay away from STX.

Edited for grammar

East Ender,
Well said!

EE, when you say Dallas I think Dallas Cowboys, Cowgirls, and Coyote Ugly. JFK was 46 years ago. The vast majority of people born in the previous 5 decades won't make that association. Fountain Valley, for the most part, has absolutely no meaning to rest country. Ask 10 random people in Dallas where St. Croix is. Chances are they don't even know it's part of the US Virgin Islands.

I like the tourism packages. Those types of deals would be a hit with the college crowd.

Ah, Justin...I should have added "Except for the all-about-me generation who have no sense of history.";)

When I think of the Dallas Cowboys, I think of the morning that jerk and his chosen coach appeared on the front page of the Dallas Morning News toasting each other with margaritas as they plotted to overthrow Tom Landry. Never paid any attention to the team since then! (td)

I guess this thread should be called "St Croix rumors"
Really, most folks don't know much about St Croix at all. Where it is. what country it is part of and certainly not what happened on the island years ago. I also don't think that people care that much about what the crime really is like as much as what they are told by tourism boards, otherwise there are some other islands that would no longer have visitors, many popular ones very near by have higher crime rates than St Croix (look at the popularity of some resorts that you can't safely leave and yet people flock to them). So why isn't the tourism stronger?
Lack of advertising, that is all.
-D

Name recognition is a good thing but only when it is associated with pleasant thoughts and/or feelings.

People continue to flock to resorts that lie within fenced compunds like those at Punta Cana precisely because they are safe. Tourists can leave all of their goodies beside their beach chair and go for a swim. Their stuff will still be there when they return.

Hi all,

I want to jump in here. I'm new and just got back from 10 days at Cottages by the Sea in F'sted so I thought my perspective as a new tourist to STX might be helpful.

First, we loved the Cottages - we loved being able to walk out from our little cottage with the beautiful view and go snorkeling. It was exactly what we wanted and what was promised from their web site. All the people from Paul to Donovan to Rose who cleaned our room on most of our days there, were warm and welcoming and helpful with any of our questions. We had an in-room safe which we used whenever we were not there and we were so thankful that Paul took the time to put it in before we arrived (I had asked about in room safes before arriving).

I found STX and the Cottages through the Internet and the Cottages web site, which is very well designed with lots of pictures. My boyfriend does not have a passport so that was a big selling point on the US Virgin Islands for us but the initial draw was the Cottages - it's small, quaint, friendly and comfortable for a perfect relaxing vacation.

With that being said, we were very surprised to have to drive by the F'sted Fish Market and the housing projects there. We often felt that we were driving through a ghetto to get to and from Cottages. On Sunday nights, it feels very "tribal" with the hundreds of locals descending on either side of Cottages and Sand Castles with their VERY loud rap reggae music. It was so disturbing to us that we made sure to schedule an activity for the following Sunday night - the moonlight tour at the botanical gardens from 7-10pm. We *thought* the noise would be gone when we got back. Wrong. The fish market blared their rap reggae until after midnight. We could hear the bass in our cottage and the only escape was to use ear plugs when we went to sleep. Earlier that night, before we escaped the area, there were car radios blasting so loud it made the decorative dishes on our wall RATTLE.

There were many times, even during the day, when we felt uncomfortable in local shopping areas and felt we got looks of disdain from locals for being tourists. We had to shop at the Extra and the K-Mart to get various things to stock our kitchen - we figured out pretty quickly that things run on that laid back timetable and we did not expect to rush through..but man sometimes I thought we would never get out of there.

In C'sted, at the ATM near the little historic house there before the fort - we were approached by a very tall black beggar guy who kept inching closer to us while at the ATM, all the while asking for "five dollar"... jeeze.. is that inflation or what? I felt uncomfortable and told the dude to BACK OFF (I am female) and he did and he actually looked shocked that a tourist would speak in such a way.. LOL

In many ways, the locals of STX reminded us of the locals in West Philadelphia - you know - the neighborhoods you don't want to make a wrong turn into. I got the same feeling driving past the Fish Market and we were VERY careful about where we went at night. We soon discovered that the safer side of the island is East of C'sted.

We loved it all around, even with the negatives.... but I think there are probably quite a few tourists who might think twice about coming BACK to STX after seeing the apparent lack of police protection in many areas. As much as we loved Cottages, I would probably hesitate to go there again unless I heard that there had been some major improvements in police cleaning up all the loitering vagabonds at the Fish Market and that they crack down on playing LOUD OBNOXIOUS MUSIC after 9 or 10pm.. period. It's very simple and if it is not done, I am betting Cottages and Sand Castle will not be able to stay in business.

We met some great statesiders while there and are tempted to even buy real estate there.. but I will have the same hesitation about that if I think crime is getting worse instead of better....

By the way - I wanted to add that before I came to STX I had not heard or remembered hearing about the Fountain Valley murders. I really think that was such a long time ago - there are more current potential crimes that are of more concern - especially the drug running that I hear goes on between Columbia and the US mainland through USVI. It seems law enforcement of drugs and illegal immigration for the US and even STX are practically non-existent and that is a disaster waiting to happen in places like STX or STT.

That is kinda the point. there is nothing associated with it outside of the VI because most people know nothing about it. Don't people have theft in STT but tourism still strong?
-D