Tourism is watching!

If they are reading my only comments would be to clean up the graffiti, abandoned buildings, and garbage everywhere in and around christiansted, any tourist who has to drive through that before arriving at their hotel is getting a terrible and frightening first impression. I guess maybe that's why they are building the new road.

The graffiti and trash is CHEAP to fix, the abandoned buildings really just need to become a "use it or lose it" deal for the owners. Demolish the buildings and plant some coconut palms there in their place and suddenly the area just past the armory doesn't feel so much like a slum.

I agree with your trash comment.

I recently got a comment published in The St Croix Source under Open forum regarding the trash and how it affects the tourist impression. I even suggested that a bottle/can deposit would go a long way to eliminating this problem. I expected the comment would have generated a bit more public out cry on the subject, but it just died with little impact.

I wish there were a way to stimulate more interest on the subject, and get more people involved.

Here's the article: Click on it to make it larger to read

Sounds like they are approaching the problem strictly from a publicity aspect, and have no intention of actually dealing with issues.

I read this article today and I really had to laugh. I agree it sounds more like they are paying this company to find negative posts so they can provide contrary information and therefore, keep up a positive impression on all the travel blogs. As someone who works downtown, I think cutting back on the barkers is helpful. Cutting back on the constant roar of "back to the ship" would be nice, too. And then there is just plain old rudeness and the police officer I saw screaming at some tourists when they had the nerve to ask for directions. (True story). Welcome to St. Thomas!

vroberge: the deposit on bottles (water and beer) is a GREAT idea.

The Gov should also pay a $100 to anybody who brings an abandoned car to a certain location.
I think we'd see some entrepreneurs at work lickitysplit.

Ignoring what's said negatively is hardly a good route. The days of endless streams of tourists are gone so finding out what the complaints ARE is the only way to fix the problems.

M. Booth and Associates IS a public relations firm. They are doing what they are paid to do. Sounds great to me. Tourism's job is to promote the territory. Sounds like they are doing what they are paid to do. Tourism can work their butts off getting the people to come here, and M. Booth can smooth the way. Now, if other branches of the government would just step up to the plate. Do we really have to tell them visitors would appreciate our islands more if they were cleaner, etc? Apparently we do! Over and over and over...

i'd like to think that someone who had a legitimate complaint would appreciate knowing that they were able to get the attention of the v.i. government, and therefore have their issue addressed with the company in question. it's a good move, imho.