On March 19^th – 23^rd St. John is the place to be for the best Blues Festival in the Caribbean!The Beach Bar at Cruz Bay is the beginning venue and the ending venue of this unforgettable event. Reverend Raven & The Chain Smoking Altar Boys will be the headline for the kick-off at The Beach Bar on March 19^th. ( You will remember that The Beach Bar is THE spot to hang out at on Thursday late afternoon for blues music from local USVI talent.) Well, Steve Simon has organized a five day Blues Festival this year from March 19^th through March 23^rd! On March 22^nd is the BIG concert of the event at Coral Bay Ball Field starting at 7PM. Simon said, “It’s probably the single greatest evening of entertainment throughout the year in the USVI.” Advance ticket sales are $25 for the Saturday night concert and $30 at the gate. ( You can contact me for the various locations where tickets will be on sale for the next ten days.)

This year’s event features some of the finest Cajun music with three of the performers coming from New Orleans. The concert stars Tab Benoit, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, Waylon Thibodeaux, and Sean Carney and the Sean Carney Band. Benoit is a recording artist who remains true to his Cajun roots. Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band play Zydeco music, with Waylon Thibodeaux playing a mixture of Louisiana-based music. Sean Carney and the Sean Carney Band was the winner of the 23rd annual Blues Challenge in Memphis. On March 20, Reverend Raven and the Chain Smoking Altar Boys will play on Bluesday in Coral Bay at the Aqua Bistro Café. The performance begins at 8 p.m. with free admission. Danny Draher and Mitch Woods play at the One Night to Go Party at Shipwreck Landing outside Coral Bay. The entertainment begins at 8 p.m. with free admission. The Blues Festival wraps up March 23^rd with a closing party at the Beach Bar in Cruz Bay. It runs from 4 to 7:30 p.m. with “surprise artists.” Admission is free.

Most of the proceeds from the Blues Festival will go to the Voice of the Wetlands to help Benoit’s efforts to put a stop to the dramatic loss of Louisiana’s wetlands. “A football-field length of wetlands is disappearing every 30 minutes,” Simon said. The loss of the protective wetlands puts the area at risk from hurricanes. Additionally, the wetlands loss has a huge economic impact on the region. “The seafood industry will be brought to its knees,” Simon said.

I love the Blues, and this is the event of the year for those that share this love. If you go to this year’s Festival, let me know what was your favorite performer. It would blow you socks off…well, I never wear any, so that will be a problem for me. Until next time…..

The biggest event in the Virgin Islands is coming April  6^th!

THE biggest event in the Virgin Islands each year is Carnival!  In fact, the Virgin Island Carnival is one of the biggest celebrations in the WORLD!  The highlight of the three week celebration is the grande finale – “Adult Parade”. It is the event that most of us think of as Carnival – colorful and BIG costumes, steel bands, floats, and the world famous “Mocko Jumbie” stilt walkers.  (Jumbies, they are stilt dancers who have their origins in West Africa where they were used to scare away evil spirits. You can find them appearing at street festivals and carnival all throughout the Caribbean.)  Every year it is an unforgettable experience. In addition, Virgin Island Carnival on St. Thomas has calypso competitions, local foods, arts and crafts, beauty pageants, concerts, and jump up parties.

The 2008 Virgin Islands Carnival plans have started way ahead of schedule. The plans started today! Beverly Nicholson Doty from the Virgin Island Tourist Board just joined the Carnival Committee, along with Ira Rosen from the States to assist with the planning. Carnival Committee Chairman, Kenneth Blake, and Executive Director, Caswil Callender, announced this year’s festivities Tuesday morning at a press conference at Palms Court Harbor View Hotel. The committee praised the participation of Gov. John deJongh Jr. in this years’ party. “He has done what he said he would do to work with us. We sat down with him two weeks ago and listened to his suggestions. He didn’t try to press anything on us just because he is the governor; he really listened to us.”  The hurdles each year are getting corporate sponsorship.  There are thousands of dollars that are earned by the local businesses in the Virgin Islands, but it is still a challenge for the committee to get the local businesses to give back to this critical annual event.

Mr. Rosen said, “We need to increase the number of cultural tourists. We need to promote Carnival because it is safe, because no passport is needed in the Virgin Islands, and because of what we have to offer to cultural tourists over leisure tourists. The cultural tourist will spend three time that of the leisure tourist, and will stay three times as long.” Mr. Rosen may need a year or more to spread the word on the mainland, but the committee is confident with their game plan that they will create this result.

This year’s committee has a total budget of almost $1.1 million. They are hoping to get $600,000 from the government, and they will raise the additional $500,000 from business sponsorships.
Again, Carnival opens April 6^th with the Prince and Princess Selection Show at 5PM at Lionel Roberts Stadium, and concludes when Carnival Village closes with a “Last Lap” from midnight to 2AM April 27^th. I hope to see you all there…

Ms. Hamilton is the current sales and marketing director at Frenchman’s Reef Resort

What an opportunity for a dynamic champion of the territory to make a significant economic difference in the Virgin Islands by expanding the tourism economy. Lisa has had a distinguished career in the hospitality business for the last 20 years. She started by making beds at the Montauk Yacht Club on Long Island. Her next stop was the Virgin Islands because a friend convinced her in 1991 to vacation with her. She fell in love with the islands and got a job at Frenchman’s Reef Resort. She rose through the ranks and became their sales and marketing director – what a success story!

For the past years she has been very active in the Virgin Island Hotel Association as a member of their board of directors and spent the last four years serving as the chairwoman of their marketing committee.  Her “fingerprints” are all over their current marketing plan to gain national awareness of the vacation opportunities in the Virgin Islands. The Hotel Association’s public relations firm, Fareed, Zapala and Koepke, hired bikini-clad models to bounce beach balls on the cold streets of New York.

Last Wednesday morning, they were outside of “The Today Show” when the camera focused in on the crowd. The “Today Show” mentioned the campaign during their show confirming the results of a stealth campaign that supports awareness of vacation opportunities in the Virgin Islands. The campaign is to also hit the streets of Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. The Big Beach Ball “stealth” marketing campaign offers viewers a $100 resort credit if they book at the listed hotels on St. Thomas and St. Croix.

Lisa sees the Internet as a critical marketing tool for the Hotel Association and they will be allocating 60 to 70 percent of its budget towards Internet marketing. Ms. Hamilton said, “Customers are making their buying decisions online,” ( With the results of our blog site, we have confirmed to Lisa that they are hitting a bulls-eye with this strategy. I will do my best to have Ms. Hamilton as a guest writer regarding the vision/mission that she will be bringing to the Hotel Association.)

Lisa also understands the effect of synergy on affiliate hotel associations and is a supporter of joining forces with the St. Croix Hotel Association to form strategic alliances with them to maximize both of their association marketing plans. The results of these types of alliances will greatly benefit the real estate opportunities for both sellers and buyers.

Those of you involved in the promoting the benefits and paradise experience of the Virgin Islands will give Lisa a standing ovation as she steps into the leadership role of this very important association. We look forward to engaging her in a dialogue as to her views on how to expand the tourist experience in this magical, tropical playground. Until next time…your Caribbean lifestyle and real estate reporter remains on duty.

Willard Daggett from International Center For Leadership In Education speaking in St. Croix and St. Thomas.

One of the factors that keep real estate values stable is a great local education system.  Last year at a St. Croix Foundation event focused on the condition of the Virgin Island education system, Willard Daggett – founder of International Center For Leadership In Education (ICLE) stated, “The public education system in the Virgin Islands is in crisis.” The St. Croix Foundation have invited Mr. Daggett to return for an education symposium this month in St. Croix and St. Thomas.

Mr. Daggett has spoken to hundreds of thousands of educators, advocating the need for public education systems to keep pace with its global competitors.  In addition to stressing the need for eliminating some of the levels of “bureaucracy” within the Education Department, Daggett also suggested the adoption of new methods to help assess students’ abilities and target materials — such as new educational software and other applications — specifically designed to help individual students.

The St. Croix Foundation has scheduled a Virgin Island symposium on January 14th-15th with Mr. Daggett as the featured speaker.  Representatives from the territory’s schools, Education officials and local policymakers are urged to attend, according to a foundation press release. The symposium is scheduled to run from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM January 14th at St. Croix’s Educational Complex, and from 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM January 15th at the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School on St. Thomas.

During this important symposium, Mr. Daggett will address three critical topics: 1) Developing 21st century literacy in students; 2) Rigor and relevance for all students; 3) Preparing students for the changing world. The event — a major part of the foundation’s Comprehensive Educational Initiative — is also sponsored in conjunction with the local Education Department. For more information on the symposium, call the St. Croix Foundation at (340) 773-9898 or visit their website. Anyone is welcome to attend so if these topics interest you, please put it in your schedule.  Until next time…