One of the most universal sports of Montserratians -- residents, government and imported consultants -- is moaning about the relative poverty of the post-1995 island and wondering how to make the situation better. The number of well-paid hours spent pondering this problem must account for a good chunk of the annual deficit! Here are my personal thoughts (checked by a few others on the island and in the diaspora) about ways forward to a prosperous future for the island.
Cruise ships and Dominica
I’ve heard mixed views about the possible benefits to Montserrat of tourism based on cruise ship visitors and a yacht marina at Little Bay, the only large and easily accessible beach on the island at present. One way to approach this subject is to look at how such tourism affects other Antillean islands. I shall concentrate mostly on Dominica.
Apart from port taxes, what do the cruise ships calling at Dominica contribute to the island’s economy and daily life?
Dominica is spectacular and relatively uninhabited
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Plenty of lovely beaches, scuba etc.
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Relatively big rivers with excellent bathing. |
Mangrove swamp……..popular with tourists |
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Roseau, the capital town.
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Several dormant volcanoes make a spectacular skyline above Roseau. |
Whale watching as good as it gets. |
Romantic forest waterfalls. |
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Two racial groups (unique in the Antillean islands): |
Kalinago pre-columbian tribe members in a small legally-defined “reservation”, far from Roseau. |
They sell handicrafts to tourists. |
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What do the cruise tourists do?
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The cruise ships arrive at night. |
They moor in secure places …….. |
…… or far from towns. |
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Most of the passengers never leave the ship, with its meals and shopping etc. One island already monopolises the onshore duty-free shopping. |
When ET is cruising and reaches land, he first phones home! |
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The sea front at Roseau is deserted when the cruises are absent. No boring beaches for local recreation. The green and white hotel employs a security guard to keep out local “undesirables”. An adjoining hotel employs a whole team of them. |
Look carefully and you can see the new KFC in the distance! So much for the older restaurants in Roseau. |
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Ironically, the visitors go to the old slave market, opposite the jetty, to buy their souvenirs. |
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Roseau has a beautiful public Botanical Garden. |
Perfect for after-school activities. |
Try to bend it like Beckham! |
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Cruise tourists are driven to the garden to see rare parrots in a cage. |
They also photograph the “dear little local kids” ……… charming! |
They see the bus squashed a baobab tree during Hurricane David. |
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Then some go by buses and taxis further inland to see forest, |
explore jungle pools etc. |
Then they move on at dusk. |
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Don’t get the idea that big oceanic yachts are very different. The crews of the Antigua ones seen here eat aboard or in their clubhouse, ignoring local restaurants. They bathe at beaches devoid of locals, except taxi drivers.
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IS THIS REALLY WHAT THE FUTURE OF MONTSERRAT IS TO BE ALL ABOUT?
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Cruise tourism in the Scilly Islands, UK
The Scillies are 45 km south of the southernmost point of England. From the point of view of tourism, they are remarkably like Montserrat. With a population of about 2000 and no obvious attractions for visitors except fine walking country and beaches, they attract plenty of tourists and yacht visitors but little else of major economic significance to the islanders. Expatriates own many of the houses and businesses.
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Tresco island in foreground |
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Hugh Town is the main settlement |
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Razorbill (Alca torda) |
Puffin (Fratercula arctica) |
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Crayfish |
Lobster |
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The one solitary feature of major tourism significance is a magnificent (almost subtropical) ornamental garden on one of the smaller islands, called Tresco. Gardening enthusiasts come from near and far to see this garden.
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National collection of ships' figureheads and suchlike |
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This has attracted the attention of the European marine cruise industry and their ships arrive every few days during the warm season. The liners behave in just the same way as in the Caribbean.
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The usual anchorage is between two islands |
Evacuation helicopter |
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There is no quay on the islands big enough to accommodate such large ships and so they anchor offshore. The small numbers of cruise passengers who wish to see Tresco garden are taken directly there on a enclosed boat and return to the ship afterwards in time for their next meal. There is no interaction at all between them and the Scillies' islanders and the latter get no financial benefit from them. Some of the ships arrive with casualties amongst the passengers, such as heart attacks and broken hips. These are evacuated by helicopter to the mainland.
To summarise, if these cruise tourists contribute any benefit at all to the Scillies and its residents (apart of course from the owner of the beautiful garden), this is unclear to me.
In Montserrat the equivalent high-grade tourist attraction is the MVO (at least until the eruption ends). For the moment, one can be sure that a few of the passengers will enjoy a quick outing there -- probably before lunch back on their ship. But post-eruption I can see almost nothing on the island that would be of any serious interest to these types of visitors and suspect that the cruise ships might simply cease to call.
OK, a short wander in the sun around the ruins of a "modern-day Pompeii" at Plymouth will interest some but I suspect that, if the cruise companies opt to build a landing quay, it will be at the Plymouth ruins, rather than at Little Bay or elsewhere.
AGAIN, IS THIS REALLY WHAT THE FUTURE OF MONTSERRAT IS TO BE ALL ABOUT?
