The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Port Authority will later this month sign a twinning agreement with Miami, that will allow the island to access the databases of cruise lines and communicate directly with the cruise ship operators, Tourism Minister Rene Baptiste has said. The agreement will be signed in the framework of a three-day meeting of Caribbean shipping executives that gets underway Kingstown on May 23.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of EasyJet, the European low-cost air carrier, has just launched EasyCruise, the latest venture from his serial company. EasyCruise is sailing along the French and Italian rivieras and is designed for independently minded people in their 20´s, 30´s and 40´s. This is a very different profile from the typical cruise passenger but already 75 percent of people who have booked with EasyCruise are aged between 18 and 40, with an average age of 35. So far, passengers of 42 different nationalities have booked cruises.

The Fuerte Amador Cruise Terminal, right at the exit of the Panama Canal in the Pacific Ocean, has so far this year welcomed 152,287 visitors since the first liner docked in there back on October 2001. The attractions of this lovely Panamanian area include the islands of Perlas and Coiba, both in the Pacific. The latter –formerly used as a prison- is now penciled in as a great natural reserve packed with wonderful wildlife.

Norwegian Cruise Line Corp. struck a deal with Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany to build a second sister ship to the Norwegian Jewel, which is due to be completed by October 2007. The Norwegian Jewel, at 2,384 passengers and 92,000 tons, is a modified version of the line´s Norwegian Star and Norwegian Dawn. The third Jewel-style vessel -- the Norwegian Jewel will be delivered in August, and a second ship was ordered in December for a February 2007 delivery -- will enter the fleet in place of a previous plan to build a ship at Aker Yards. That deal was called off in April.

The Jamaican government has imposed what it calls tourism enhancement fees on all arriving air and cruise passengers, as of May 1. The new fees - $10 per air traveler and $2 per cruise passenger - will be levied in addition to the country´s existing $20 departure tax, and likewise will be rolled into air and cruise ticket prices. Jamaican tourism minister Aloun Ndombet-Assamba explained the new fees, first proposed last spring, will raise much-needed capital for the maintenance and improvement of tourism infrastructure. Unlike departure tax monies, which end up in general-use government funds, the tourism enhancement fees will be deposited in a tourism-specific account.

Rio de Janeiro´s cruise season is in full swing and breaking records as the Brazilian city has so far welcomed 85 vessels and 135,000 passengers who have spent $55 million. According to official stats, the ongoing cruise season kicked off on October 30 with the docking of a couple of deluxe ships to Brazilian ports that brought in 724 sea trekkers.