Leading cruise ship operators have warned that the Cayman Islands risk being bypassed by the next generation of cruise ships unless the jurisdiction builds berthing facilities which allow passengers to walk ashore instead of being brought to the island by tender boats.
Speaking at the CTO’s annual State of the Tourism Industry Conference being held at The Westin Grand Cayman this week, Richard Sasso, chairman of MSC Cruises North America, said that building a berthing pier “must be done eventually, as some of the larger ships will not call here because they can’t tender that many people. It’s not something that’s going to go away.”
He added that MSC was already building ships which were too big to tender in the Cayman Islands, so future passenger growth without a berthing pier was limited and could be lost to rival destinations.
‘Maybe we won’t come to Grand Cayman’
“When Mexico, for example, adds another port that we might be able to go to on a seven-day itinerary, maybe we won’t come to Grand Cayman because we’re able to give the guest three or four ports [instead],” Sasso said.
He added, “There needs to be an easy way for guests to disembark from these huge ships, to do it cleanly, safely and quickly, so they spend more time ashore and not queue to get back to the ship. You can add two or three hours onshore experiencing multiple chances to see everything that’s in the Cayman Islands by having a pier for two ships or three or four.”
This comes after a previous government-backed project to build cruise berthing facilities and expand the cargo port was ultimately shelved following a court battle; the current administration has pledged to hold a referendum on the issue of building a cruise pier later this year.
Opponents of the proposition question the economic benefit of welcoming larger cruise ships to Grand Cayman, as well as the impact of the arrival of thousands of cruise passengers on the island’s infrastructure and natural environment.
Sasso argued, “Every destination in the Caribbean is thinking about how they’re going to improve their shore experience and the facilities, so we need to have a reason five years or ten years from now why we should be visiting here. You can decide how many people come, how long they stay and how many ships during the week you would require, but it can be done and you must do it.”
The cruise lines “win” he added, because the “guests are going to have a great experience and we can bring international guests in more numbers, and the destination wins because people can stay longer at the destination and spend more money.”
‘We are building larger ships’
David Candib, vice president of port operations, Carnival Cruise Line, said that some of its ships were already not calling at Grand Cayman because they were too large and that the issue would only increase as more larger ships were added to its fleet.
“We are building larger ships, and we have made an operational decision that those ships won’t call on destinations that are tender ports,” he told delegates. “With 6,500 up to 8,000 guests and then another 1,500 – 2,000 thousand crew, it’s just not something that we as a company or an industry are doing with those types of ships.”
“Since the introduction of the larger ships for the Carnival fleet we have seen a reduction in calls to Grand Cayman, so ships that were tendering here, for example from Galveston, have been replaced and aren’t calling on Grand Cayman.”
Candib said that Carnival was already working with other Caribbean governments and destinations to expand capacity, such as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and Honduras.
“We’re doing that, because we need the certainty,” he said. “We want to continue to call on Grand Cayman, our guests love visiting Grand Cayman, but over time certainly, the ability of all our ships to be able to call here is likely to end.”
Delegates from across the Caribbean were welcomed to the conference by Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who attended the morning’s sessions alongside Tourism Minister Kenneth Byran and Cayman Governor Jane Owen.
The governor, premier and other government officials at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference on Wednesday. – Photo: Sarah Bridge
Also present was the incoming chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), who was elected by a meeting of the CTO Ministerial Council yesterday. Ian Gooding-Edghill, Minister of Tourism and International Transport for Barbados, will take over from outgoing chairman Kenneth Bryan, while Andrea Franklin, chief executive of Barbados Tourism Marketing will serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors, replacing Cayman Islands Director of Tourism, Rosa Harris.
Caymanite the turtle was released on Tuesday evening. – Photo: Sarah Bridge
At a pre-opening welcome event at The Westin the previous day, a two year old green turtle named Caymanite was released into the ocean by staff from the Cayman Turtle Centre as part of its conservation programme.
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Publish date : 2024-09-04 18:00:00
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