Why St. Thomas Is Suddenly Everyone’s Next Trip

Most of the destinations on Fora’s 2027 Hot List ask something of the traveler: a long-haul flight, a visa file, a fresh set of vaccinations. Then, at number nine, comes a Caribbean pair that asks for none of that. Malta, Slovenia, Egypt, Vietnam, Finland, Taiwan, Alaska, and St. Thomas and St. John complete the nine destinations Fora expects to gain the most ground next year, behind China at the top. The islands are the only Caribbean entry on the list.

The timing is notable. On the same day, the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism announced that the territory had also been named Best Caribbean Cruise Destination in Porthole Cruise and Travel Magazine’s 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards. Two awards that measure different things now point the same way, and the numbers behind them suggest this is more than a marketing moment.

Two Honors, Two Different Audiences

The recognitions come from different corners of the travel industry and say different things.

Fora’s Hot List is now in its fifth year. It tracks where the agency’s network of travel advisors is seeing demand, and its editors made the final picks from a top 25. It reads as a forecast of overnight travelers, the people who book a villa or a suite and stay a week. Porthole’s award is a popularity contest in the best sense. It is decided by votes from thousands of magazine readers and Porthole.com fans, and it covers cruise lines, ships and destinations. It speaks to the passenger who steps off a ship in Charlotte Amalie and decides whether to come back for longer.

Tourism Commissioner Jennifer Matarangas-King framed the double recognition as proof of traveler and trade interest alike. She pointed to the variety across all three islands, a growing stock of accommodations, cultural depth and easy access for U.S. visitors. That is the standard tourism-board line, but this time it has data under it.

Why the Advisors Are Paying Attention

Fora’s broader 2027 forecast helps explain the appeal. The agency expects “anti-algorithm travel” to rise, with 18% of its advisors saying clients want to experience destinations more deeply and 13% saying avoiding overtourism is a priority. Another finding is more practical: 28% of advisors said clients want fewer stops and a slower pace.

St. Thomas and St. John suit that mood. The pairing offers two distinct trips within a short ferry ride. St. Thomas brings the resort, restaurant and sailing scene. St. John offers quieter beaches and protected land, and two-thirds of the island sits inside Virgin Islands National Park. A traveler can base on one island and cross to the other without repacking or re-clearing anything.

Access is the other half of the pitch. U.S. citizens traveling from the mainland or Puerto Rico need no passport, and as general background, that puts the territory in the same low-friction category as Puerto Rico. Visitors who are not U.S. citizens face the same entry rules as for any arrival in the United States, which is worth knowing before booking.

The Hotel Story Is Quietly Getting Better

The report also singled out three properties, each telling a different part of the story.

Lovango Resort & Beach Club, a private-island retreat off St. John, holds Two Michelin Keys, and Fora noted its luxury offering and sustainability practices. That is a serious credential in a region where Michelin’s lodging recognition is still sparse.

Frenchman’s Reef, which houses The Westin St. Thomas Beach Resort & Spa and Buoy Haus Beach Resort, completed an extensive redevelopment in 2023. As general context, the territory spent years rebuilding its lodging stock after the 2017 hurricanes, and a rebuilt flagship of this scale marks the end of that chapter.

The most interesting entry is one that hasn’t opened. The Botany, a boutique resort planned for St. Thomas, is expected to debut in 2027 with just 20 villas across 300 acres. That works out to enormous space per guest, and it hints at where the territory may want to go: low-density luxury that earns more per visitor without adding crowds. Nothing in the announcement says this is a formal strategy, but the direction is clear.

The Cruise Numbers Behind the Trophy

Awards are easy to dismiss. Booking numbers are harder to argue with, and the territory’s cruise figures this year are striking.

Through June 2026, the territory welcomed 1,265,527 cruise passengers, a 40.2% increase over the 902,881 recorded in the same period of 2025. St. Thomas did most of the work. It received 1,133,028 passengers, up 47.1% from 770,474 a year earlier, while St. Croix held roughly steady at 132,499. The department also put the average cruise passenger’s daily spending at $167.

For context, nearly 1.83 million cruise passengers arrived in St. Thomas and St. Croix during 2025, and the tourism department had projected about 1.96 million for 2026. Half-year figures of this size suggest that forecast will be comfortably exceeded.

Land-based tourism is also strong. The first quarter of 2026 produced 303,388 arrivals, a 12% increase over the same period in 2025. Hotel tax revenue reached $47.8 million through June.

Airlift Is the Quiet Enabler

Neither award would matter much if travelers couldn’t get there easily. The tourism department points to additional seasonal Delta service from Boston and Southwest routes from Orlando and Baltimore. Boston adds a Northeast gateway, and Southwest’s two routes widen the reach for travelers who prefer a low-fare carrier. St. Thomas also remains a departure point and port of call for luxury yacht itineraries, which gives the territory a third audience beyond hotel guests and cruise passengers.

A Caribbean Perspective

Across the region, destinations are wrestling with the same question: how to turn visitors who spend a few hours ashore into guests who stay for days. The USVI is in an unusually good position to try, because it can offer both volumes and variety. A cruise passenger can taste St. Thomas, hear about St. John from a guide or a fellow passenger, and plan a longer return trip. That conversion path, from day visitor to repeat overnight guest, is where cruise-heavy Caribbean destinations have the most to gain.

There is a tension worth stating plainly, though. Fora’s advisors report clients fleeing crowds, while the territory’s cruise numbers are climbing at a pace few ports can match. The two trends can coexist, since cruise passengers and villa guests are different customers, but they share the same beaches, roads and harbors. Managing that overlap is the real test of the 2027 season. Porthole’s award, being a reader vote, also measures popularity rather than operational quality, and it should be read that way.

Even so, the pieces fit better than they do in many peer destinations. The territory has record arrivals, new and refreshed lodging at the high end, expanding airlift from three U.S. cities, and now two independent endorsements from very different audiences.

For travelers, the practical lesson is that the “Hot List” effect cuts both ways. A ranking like Fora’s tends to lift demand, and demand lifts rates, particularly in winter high season when the weather is at its best. Anyone considering St. Thomas and St. John for early 2027 would do well to book flights and lodging sooner rather than later. Those who want the quieter version of the islands should look at shoulder-season timing, or at the smaller properties that Fora highlighted.

The U.S. Virgin Islands enter 2027 with something many destinations spend years chasing: momentum that shows up in both the awards and the accounting. The next twelve months will show whether the territory can convert that momentum into durable value. The opening of The Botany, the performance of the new airlift routes and the way St. Thomas handles a surging cruise calendar will all be early indicators. If those pieces fall into place, a Caribbean pair that sits ninth on a global list may be remembered as the moment the region’s most accessible destination began to compete for something more than a day in port.

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