The U.S. government is considering renting cruise ships as one solution to the problem of securing a home or shelter to accommodate thousands of homeless people in the event of a hurricane. Brad Gair, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recovery coordinator, spoke of that idea at a Annual Hurricane Conference held last weekend in New Orleans, the Caribbean Net News has reported.

Bermuda´s Tourism Minister Ewart Brown has advanced that a new cruise ship, the Crown Princess of Princess Cruises, with a capacity of 3,100 passengers will make 10 one-day visits to this Caribbean island next year. Taking advantage of the newly restructured passenger tax, changed from a flat US$60 fee based on a three-day stay to a more flexible US$20 per day, the ship will call into Dockyard on either Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, or Mondays, between June 25 and October 16 next year, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Royal Caribbean Cruises Line (RCCL) is working to come up with a fare program that will definitely recognize key account status and address components that includes marketing, Lisa Bauer, the company´s vice president for North America sales, said. The cruise line is discontinuing its key account fares, a controversial policy that gives top accounts access to group rates for individual bookings. It is also working on a revised group policy to discourage agencies from blocking so-called "speculative" group space and filling it with individual travelers.

Last year, Peru received the calls of 15 cruise liners in the ports of Callao (Lima), Salaverry (La Libertad) and San Martin (Ica), logging a grand total of 11,382 passengers. This time around, Peruvian authorities expect to see a dozen deluxe vessels docking in during the first third of 2005. These cruises will bring somewhere between 200 and 1,900 passengers each, the Peru Trade Office in Miami reported this week.

When Caribbean and Latin American countries are debating whether to set or raise fees on cruises, the government of Puerto Rico has approved the creation of a US$10.7 million fiscal incentive package for the cruise industry, which includes breaks on port taxes, other provisions and fees for ships making San Juan its homeport. Currently, all cruise passengers pay a US$13.25 head tax in San Juan. As part of the program, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) will return to the cruise lines a $2.95 destination incentive for each passenger who visits San Juan.

The cruise ship Holiday Dream, owned by the Spanish company Pullmantur Cruises, has included Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) in its itinerary in Cuba. Punta Francés, the place where the boat will soon dock, is one of the most beautiful natural environments on the island, ideally for diving. The first stopovers of the 39,000-ton, 1,047-passenger ship brought more than 1,000 Spanish travelers, who were enchanted by the excellent state of coral reefs, tunnels and underwater caverns near the El Colony Dive Center.