Officials Deny Carnival Grand Turk Berthing Cutbacks

Officials are denying utterances on the street that Carnival Cruise Line is planning to cut back berths to the Grand Turk Cruise Centre to that capital island.

People have been saying that the cruise line is planning to cutback and reroute some of the local calls to other destinations over the coming months. The SUN has not ascertained what would be the reason for such a cutback.

When contacted, Head of the Grand Turk Cruise Terminal, Rick Lovell, said that he is unaware of such plans. In fact, Lovell said that the opposite to the allegation is true. He said that berths at the centre, which has been growing by a whopping 20 percent over the last two years, is set to increase this year and for the foreseeable future.

“I have not heard anything to that level at all [that Carnival is planning to cut back], no. Actually, we have been increasing 20 per cent over the last couple of years, and I have not heard of anything being cutback. We are not maxed out as far as our capacity, but I expect us to grow until we continue to max out, which I think, if we continue with this 20 per cent growth, we will probably max out in the next year or so. As far as I know, things are going to be increasing, and that is what we are hoping for,” Lovell said.

For his part, Ralph Higgs, Director for Tourism, said too, that he has not heard of any such plans by Carnival to scale back its berthing here, adding that if that was the case his office would be notified in some form.

He said there is a tradition in the cruise industry that during the summer, berths to the tropics are scaled back to facilitate regions that are difficult to access during the winter months, such as Alaska and Europe. Therefore he said those seasonal scale backs are the only ones he are aware of.

“I am not aware that Carnival is cutting back any berths to Grand Turk. If their cut back is seasonal, then it is routine. In the summer months the boats repositioned to plow other regions. They take boats out (of the Caribbean roster) to send to the Alaska area of the European areas that they can’t plow in the winter. So I am not aware of any planned reduction beyond what is seasonal and traditional right across the region and across the industry,” Higgs said.

Higgs told The SUN that if there are plans to make cutbacks which would be greater than what is seasonal, then tourism players would be notified of the changes before they are made, and in this case no such notification has been made.

Source: Turks & Caicos Sun