‘Mindset of some government depts & agencies a challenge’- Flax-Mars
She told lawmakers that she has experienced “stagnant funding” with the timing of the subventions and would like “to receive them on time as it creates a challenge”.
The Director proposed a whopping operational budget for 2015 of $11, 135,000.00 which was a major increase of $635,000 from 2014.
Critics of the BVITB often complain that most of that money leaves the Virgin Islands and goes to foreign marketing companies and that those marketing efforts are most often not successful.
Notwithstanding the critics, Mrs Flax-Mars promised the Committee to launch a new marketing campaign in early 2015.
When asked by one legislator to justify the request for an increase of $635,000 in her budget, the BVITB Director stated that “even more than the amount was needed to market the territory and to expand into France and delve deeper into South America.”
In a 2013 VI Festival and Fairs Committee Report, former Chairman of the Committee Marvin ‘MB’ Blyden labeled the BVITB as “useless” in advertising festival and said expectations were not achieved.
Mindset an issue
Another challenge presented to the Standing Finance Committee by Mrs Flax-Mars was what she described as “the mindset of some government departments and agencies who expect the Tourist Board to pay all the expenses for certain events, including Lobster fest”.
The Director blasted those departments and agencies for this “mindset” and called on them to “be responsible for their own portfolios”.
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17 Responses to “‘Mindset of some government depts & agencies a challenge’- Flax-Mars”
I think that we have to watch the BVITB more carefully....the Ch..... gone AWAL
$11 mil is high, she should be looking for ways to cut costs and still achieve the same or better results.
We don't have an Airport but here we are spending millions to market to Latin America, Asia, France etc. Ok, say they love the BVI, then what? They have to catch 4 flights to get here and lose 2 days of their vacation, one whole day to come, another whole day to get back. BULL@#$$ Fix the Airport or stop the damn noise. I'm sick of it man.
It would be wonderful if there was a freedom of information act here, then we could all learn exactly how 11 million dollars has been spent. An outrageous sum.