Right now they have a problem like every US community is dealing with. The politicians want to keep their population as safe as possible until there is a vaccine while at the same time not starving. There is no easy way to accomplish that. Unfortunately they didn’t give “the rest of the story”, when they announced reopening. That has resulted in lots of disappointment and anger. In support of their position, opening the doors to tourism now with simply a test prior to travel would most likely result in a big increase in the virus among the local population. They have 7 ventilators. In our relatively small county one of the two hospitals have 16 currently on ventilators and have many others in a facility for long term critical care patients. A politician is in a tough position if their decision possibly contributes to lots of suffering and deaths relatively late in the pandemic.

They have vaccine spoken for from one of the companies, not sure which. Until then they are not going to be “user friendly” for tourists or sailors. It’s really not personal or without some good reasons. I am certain they are more eager to get this behind us and welcome tourists after the pandemic is under control than those wanting to travel.

If you think about the number of people often involved in making up a charter crew or villa renters, the odds of not bringing Covid with many of them are poor. Different states, students Etc. with their own diverse set of contacts prior to travel. Heck it’s not safe to go to another’s house in much of the country today. It is unlikely to go well until the numbers in US and Europe go down.

After this is over you will likely be welcomed with as open arms as ever..visiting vessels it is dependent on what officer you get at C&I but it’s not bad. After having a charter boat there for about ten years we purchased another private Boat and had it in the BVI on a temporary import permit until selling it this fall. That’s 200 $ annually.

I would look for fees and taxes to go up. I suspect charter boats from outside the territory will pay higher daily fees. Private vessels might undergo more scrutiny after the recent large scale drug trade intercepts. . You will be of course very welcome at all businesses following this disaster.

Edit, I see my friend Mike that knows much more about the various island regs than I do gave you a rundown. In our case we had a part time residence in the bvi and just paid the temporary import fee and of course the fees where we kept it and never heard anything else from them. One thing everyone agrees with is that they are sticklers on having the boat at the customs port when you check in.