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Cruise shipping is back - Bartlett

Tourism minister says aim is to surpass the 800,000 cruise visitors the country hosted in 2022

Published:Thursday | June 15, 2023 | 12:19 AM
Jamaica’s tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett (third left), poses with (from left) Philip Rose, deputy director of tourism, Americas, with responsibility for the United States, Caribbean and Latin America; Royal Caribbean Group’s trio of Mario Egues, man
Ainsley Walters
Jamaica’s tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett (third left), poses with (from left) Philip Rose, deputy director of tourism, Americas, with responsibility for the United States, Caribbean and Latin America; Royal Caribbean Group’s trio of Mario Egues, manager, destination development, Americas and Caribbean; Christopher Allen, vice-president, global deployment and itinerary planning; Bryan Atree, senior manager, worldwide port operations, Royal, and Delano Seiveright, senior adviser and strategist, Ministry of Tourism.

IMPRESSIVE cruise-shipping numbers for the first two months of the year suggest Jamaica could be on track to challenge its 2019 tourist season when 1.4 million passengers visited the island.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett on Monday met with senior executives of Royal Caribbean Group at their headquarters in Miami, Florida, as part of a major blitz to shore up key tourism players in the United States.

Jamaica’s tourism is experiencing an incredible resurgence in 2023, 1.5 million guests up to May 10, with more than 300,000 cruise passengers arriving in the first two months of the year, a whopping increase on the 49,870 cruise guests the island received during the same period in 2022.

Pointing out that the aim is to quickly surpass the 800,000 cruise visitors the country hosted in 2022, Bartlett said Royal Caribbean Group, the second largest cruise operator in the world, was impressed with the speedy recovery of Jamaica’s tourism product, emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I met with the powerbrokers of Royal Caribbean. To say how excited they are about Jamaica’s COVID-19 recovery would be putting it mildly. During our meeting they reaffirmed their commitment to sending us their huge Oasis-class and Quantum-class vessels in addition to expanding their presence at all of our major ports,” said the tourism minister.

“I can say, without any fear of contradiction, that cruise shipping is back,” Bartlett declared.

As of January 2021, Royal Caribbean Group fully owns three cruise lines – Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises. The group also holds a 50 per cent stake in TUI Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.

Bartlett lauded Royal Caribbean’s commitment to Jamaica, describing the group’s loyalty as a mainstay of the island’s tourism.

“Cruise shipping is an integral part of our visitor arrival tally. Royal Caribbean, the number two cruise company in the world, has been an important partner and continues to send us their biggest and flagship vessels.

“They have also been a great employer and corporate citizen, as evident by two of our nationals, Omar Cover and Janet Dinnial, working as executive sous chef and restaurant manager, respectively, on the world’s biggest cruise ship, the Wonder of the Seas,” he added.