Tourism Minister Projects Robust Cruise-Shipping Season

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says November will signal the start of a very robust cruise-shipping season, beginning with the inaugural visit of the world’s biggest cruise ship.

According to Mr. Bartlett, Harmony of the Seas, the third Oasis-class ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet of luxury vessels, will join its sister ships, the Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, giving the port of Falmouth, Trelawny, the distinction of accommodating the three largest cruise ships in the world.

In an interview with JIS News, Mr. Bartlett informed that Harmony will hold nearly 6,000 passengers at double occupancy in 2,747 staterooms, which is 41 more staterooms than either Allure or Oasis.

“We should be seeing a very good cruise-ship season, starting with those three Royal Caribbean luxury ships and many others,” he noted.

“The Falmouth pier should be seeing a lot of action and has been earmarked as the centrepiece for growth within the cruise-shipping subsector. We are projecting some $5 billion in earnings from five million cruise-ship passengers stopping over by 2021,” the Minister added.

Mr. Bartlett said it is important that the smaller players, including souvenir shop owners, craft traders and ground-transport operators position themselves in an orderly way to capitalise on what is expected to be a huge influx of visitors.

He noted that along with Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, all three resort towns will be seeing their fair share of traffic and that he expected full participation from the local stakeholders, including the residents, the police and the leaders of the public and private sectors.

“We must begin to understand that there is enough of the tourism pie to go around. Nobody should feel marginalised or left out, as tourism is for the people,” the Minister said.

Mr. Bartlett said the projected growth in the tourism industry should result in more than 120,000 persons being directly employed and another 300,000 persons from induced employment.

The Minister said it is against this background that he is urging all stakeholders and industry players to maintain high standards, ensuring that people will want to come back to the island.