Fly-Cruise Business to Barbados Growing, Says Foster & Ince

Barbados is projecting a 12 percent increase in fly/cruise business from the European market for the 2015-2016 cruise-tourism season.

International tour operators and executives of Foster & Ince Cruise Services, the leading company in the cruise-tourism business in Barbados, estimate that over 100 000 visitors will fly into the island to join cruise ships over the next six months.

This is up from around 80 000 passengers who flew in and out of the island last season on charters after taking Caribbean cruises from Barbados.

“Based on our bookings, we expect around 400 wide-bodied aircraft to touch down at the Grantley Adams International Airport during the season, moving cruise-passengers in and out of the island between October (2015) and April (2016),” said Martin Ince, CEO of Foster & Ince.

The Chief Executive of Foster & Ince spoke to the media while among other tourism industry leaders, who recently welcomed Royal Caribbean’s Anthem Of The Seas on its maiden visit to the Bridgetown Port.

Significantly, Barbados’ fly-cruise program, which sees mainly European visitors flying to the island to join cruise ships at the Bridgetown Port, has been growing significantly over the past four years, mainly as a result of bigger ships homeporting and the sign-off of strategic business partnerships.

This segment of the business has also been beneficial to several Barbadian hotels, as fly/cruisers tend to book hotel stays before or after going on Caribbean cruises.

Big players in the global travel business – such as Thomson Tours, Tui, Thomas Cook, Air Berlin and Condor – will again be operating charters to Barbados, bringing passengers from mainly across the United Kingdom and Germany.

Foster & Ince, based on contracts with International Tour Operators, manages the transport of the majority of these cruisers, and their luggage, and also provide a range of dockside services through its subsidiary Platinum Port agency.

The fly-cruise program is a critical part of the cruise-tourism business in Barbados, which according to the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) generated in excess of $116m in revenue for the island last year.

With 15 new ships expected to call at the Bridgetown Port during the 2015-2016 season, industry leaders have projected that around 800 000 cruise-passengers will visit Barbados over the next year.

Source: The Barbados Advocate