T&T Joins Neighbors in Cruise Ship Plan
T&T is among four countries in the region now closer to agreeing a deal that will boast cruise ship travel to their destinations. Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia are the Caricom member states partnering with this country on the Southern Caribbean Cruise Initiative aimed at boasting passenger arrivals and revenue. The plan could take effect as early as 2015.
T&T will serve as the home port for the project based of its capacity in the areas of fuel bunkering, light manufacturing and room stock to meet the needs of potential cruise passengers. Through this partnership the regional quartet will engage the interest of major cruise lines seeking warm water destinations, proposing that a line between these territories form a new route.
At a meeting in Port-of-Spain chaired by Lorne Theophilus, St Lucia’s Minister of Tourism, Heritage and The Creative Industries, details of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the respective governments were hammered out
T&T was represented by Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma and Tracey Davidson-Celestine, secretary for Tourism and Transportation spoke in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). Theophilus said: “We realized there was quite a unique consensus amongst us as to the way forward. We clarified various concerns we may have had concerning the ingredients of the MOU to go to the Cabinets of the various participating territories and moving from this, we will look at the other issues.
Theophilus credited former tourism minister Stephen Cadiz for coming up with the idea at a Caribbean Tourism Organization Conference in New York. He praised current Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma for keeping the project alive, saying the minister’s enthusiasm was a key driver in the project=’s success so far as he was keen on implementation of the various aspects, ensuring there are no bars to implementation.
He said the latest survey on tourists arrivals in St Lucia showed an average visitor expenditure of around US$80-85 from a total of 700,060 visitors annually. Theophilus said it was easy to connect the considerable returns in terms of direct expenditure from port charges and aspects that were immeasurable. “We are targeting to have this fully operational by 2015, hoping to do a presentation during the course of 2014 to the industry partners who we intend to target...so that this whole initiative can be fully operational by 2015,” he said.
Sharma said the Caribbean has become one of the preferred destinations for cruises lines in recent times and the collective effort was especially designed to maximize on that. He said the MOU was arrived at with definitive operational guidelines.
Source: The Guardian (Trinidad & Tobago)
