Ocho Rios Expects 170,000 Cruise Passengers for December and January

Terminal Manager for the Ocho Rios Cruise Ship Pier, Dennis Richards, is expecting high cruise ship passenger arrivals for the winter tourist season, with some 170,000 visitors expected for December and January.
While not expecting the record 91,000 arrivals of last December, Mr. Richards said that so far this month, “we have had over 33,000 passengers so by the end of the month, we should have up to some 80,000 to 85,000,” adding that another 90,000 were expected for January.
According to Mr. Richards, the Ocho Rios cruise sector was “badly” affected by the hurricanes, but had fully recovered, and the arrivals for October and November, had surpassed those for the same period last year.
Citing figures, he said that arrivals for October were 50,000 over 40,000 for October of 2004, while “in November 2004, we had 70,000 cruise ship passengers and this year we had a total of 75,000”.
Meanwhile, Mr. Richards informed that at least one cruise ship would be arriving at the Ocho Rios pier every day up to the end of this year and into January 2006.
The schedule for Monday, December 19 to Saturday, December 24 will see calls by Saga Ruby, Silver Whisper, Voyager of the Seas, Radiance of the Seas, Imagination, Carnival Victory, Aida Aura and Norwegian Sun.
Meanwhile, Senior Supervisor in charge of ground transportation at the Ocho Rios Pier, Marlon Dickenson, told JIS News that plans have been put in place to ensure that the cruise ship passengers were safety transported to the different attraction sites and shopping areas.
“Our ground transportation business is going very well. We have an effective communications system and our transport operators are cooperating with the programme. Our staff representatives are well informed and some are multilingual, so effective communication can take place with our visitors, who do not speak the English language,” he said.
He commended the transport operators for their cooperation and urged them to continue to support the tourism sector.