Despite the cruise industry taking a hiatus, Barbados stands to continue to benefit from the industry, though in a much smaller way.
That’s the word from Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds. He told those attending the first quarterly meeting of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association yesterday at the Hilton Hotel, that some of the ships that have been forced to stop sailing for a month or two, are opting to engage in that downtime in Barbados.
“Each one of them will be anchored out there without any passengers on board, but with crew. And if we have 20 such ships or 15 such ships and the average one is carrying a thousand crew, then you have between 15,000 and 20,000 people who need to be fed, who need to be watered, who need to be provided with some form of entertainment and relaxation, recreation etc.,” he said.
Minister Symmonds said even as the country will only be catering to the crew, it will still maintain the strictest levels of “diligence and surveillance” at the Port, to protect the residents and citizens of Barbados.
“But it is good thing and a useful thing, and a helpful thing to our tourism sector and it is something that others will watch us from a distance with a degree of envy about, because that 15 000 to 20 000 people must now be encouraged by way of creative packages to be moving themselves around this island, to experience the tourism product,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Barbados Port Inc., Senator Lisa Cummins indicated that there are seven cruise ships currently in Port. She said as of yesterday four of those are in the Bridgetown Port and the passengers are being disembarked, with that process expected to be completed by Monday.
According to Cummins, some 11,000 passengers will be moving from the Port to the Grantley Adams International Airport during that period. She said in addition to the Port, ships will be anchored off Carlisle Bay and as far as Speightstown, as there is not enough capacity to accommodate them in the deep water harbour. These ships, she said, represent some of the major cruise lines including Carnival and Royal Caribbean.
“There are some countries that did close their borders and in the process people now have to make their way back home and so we have a number of chartered flights that are making their way, in partnership with their governments and lines to be able to pick up their citizens and take them home. So we are running an extensive operation to be able to get people home, the same way we want to be able to ensure that Barbadian citizens wherever they are in the world are also able to get home and be safe with their families,” she said. (JRT)