By Admin. Updated 6:09 p.m., Monday, October 31, 2022, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
This country is projecting a record-breaking cruise tourism season for 2022/2023.
Officials are projecting increases in the number of cruise visitors and the number of cruise calls.
Minister of Tourism and Culture, Carlos James said a 29 percent in the number of cruise calls for 2022/2023 when compared to the 2018/2019 season.
He said the 2018/2019 season was a record season.
Some 305 calls are expected this year.
Twelve (12) calls will be inaugural calls.
In addition, a 44 percent increase in the number of cruise passengers to SVG is being projected for 2022/2023 season when compared to the 2018/2019 season.
Just under 326,000 cruise passengers are expected to visit SVG, Mr. James told One News SVG.
He said: “We could have gotten more calls, but because of our limitations at the port where we can only take two ships per day, we were unable to take more calls.”
“We could have even gone higher with our numbers,” he added.
Mr. James said he is happy that the new commercial port is being built in Kingstown,” so we can have space at the existing commercial port to accommodate cruise calls.
The season is expected to produce the “highest numbers in the last 20 years when we did the research,” Tourism and Culture minister Carlos James told One News SVG.
He said: “while we are celebrating it’s a record, it’s still nominal compared to other other Caribbean islands,” noting SVG infrastructural limitations and lack of capacity to accommodate multiple cruise ships at the same time.
One News St.Vincent 