St. John

St. John represents a unique experiment in conservation-driven economy: Laurence Rockefeller's 1956 donation placed 60% of the island under National Park Service protection, creating what amounts to a permanent land-use constraint that shaped everything since. The Virgin Islands National Park (plus 5,500 adjacent ocean acres and most of Hassel Island) attracts visitors for diving, snorkeling, and rainforest hiking—generating an estimated $49.3 million in visitor spending (2021) that supported 565 jobs in a community of just 3,881 residents (2020 Census). This creates an economy almost entirely dependent on park-adjacent tourism: rental villas, hotels, shops, and restaurants clustered in Cruz Bay and Coral Bay. The island demonstrates how conservation can function as economic moat—development constraints that might frustrate other communities instead protect the natural assets that drive St. John's premium positioning. With 8.1% year-over-year growth in Leisure & Hospitality jobs as of July 2024, the model continues working. Yet the small population creates fragility: hurricane damage, park closures, or reef degradation would cascade through an economy with few alternative sectors. St. John's relationship with St. Thomas is symbiotic—cruise passengers and air arrivals access St. John via ferry from Charlotte Amalie, making the larger island's hub function essential to St. John's tourism. The island exists because Rockefeller decided it should exist this way; path dependence made permanent by legal protection.