Whale Watching Worldwide

British Virgin Islands
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1991 Minimal N/A N/A Minimal Minimal Minimal
1994 300+ N/A N/A $10,000 $25,000 $35,000
1998 200 ‐9.6% 2 $4,000 $10,000 $14,000
2008 100 ‐6.7% 1 $2,000 $6,000 $8,000
Capital City: Road Town
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Tortola
The British Virgin Islands have regular visitation by humpback
whales in the first three months of each year. However, there is
little in the way of a formal whale watching industry, which from a
low start back in the early 1990s, now has become almost non‐
existent. Responses from dive operators and tourism officials in the
country indicated that sightings of whales are too infrequent to
justify undertaking dedicated whale watching trips, despite
cetaceans being occasionally seen on dive trips.
In earlier research on the British Virgin Islands (Hoyt, 1999), it was noted that most whale watching tours
had dried up in the late 1990s, including the previously offered air charters to see whales. One captive
dolphin operation does exist in the British Virgin Islands, but is not counted in this study.
One operator remains after many years, running trips to listen to the humpback whales from Tortola Island.
This operator runs occasional trips over the season, but doesn’t charge for the privilege, beyond some
coverage of costs and selling his high quality CD recordings of whales. He reported his numbers were down
by around 50% in 2008 after spending less time running the trips (rather than due to any significant drop in
demand). This operator records the sounds of humpback whales, and these recordings are distributed
around the world on CD.
Main species: Large cetaceans:
humpback whale
Small cetaceans:
bottlenose dolphin
Tourists:
International > 90%
Domestic