For the first time since 2010 more than 100,000 cruise ship passengers have visited T&T as a destination.
In announcing those figures recently Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe said: "For the 2015-2016 cruise season, Trinidad received 30,493 cruise arrivals from 25 cruise ships while Tobago received 70,298 cruise passengers from 60, a total to the destination of 100,791 which represents an increase of 115 per cent over the cruise season of the previous year.
"The last time, T&T had cruise passenger arrivals in excess of 100,000 was during the 2009/2010 cruise season," she said.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the close of the 2015/16 cruise ship season at the Cruise Ship Complex in Port-of-Spain, the minister attributed this success to "aggressive marketing."
She said the cruise ship industry is big business in the Caribbean region and during the 2014 to 2015 cruise year, cruise tourism generated US$3.16 billion in direct expenditures, 75,050 jobs and paid US$976 million in employee wages.
Cudjoe said T&T had its share of this income as data shows that during the 2015/16 cruise year, the average passenger spent US$42.58 in Trinidad and US$74.18 in Tobago, while the average crew spends US$23 per person generating US$6.7 million.She said the Ministry of Tourism is expecting an even better 2016/17 season.
"We want to continue to benefit from the cruise ships arrivals at ports in both Trinidad and Tobago so we offer cruise lines an incentive of a 50 per cent head discount if they call at both our islands back to back.
"In other words, the cruise ships that opt for this type of itinerary will only pay one head tax of US$5 and not US$10."
She said Princess Cruises has included in its 2017/18 Americas Cruise calendar sailings to T&T.
Other luxury cruise lines have added T&T to their itineraries including the MSC Orchestra, with a capacity of more than 2,000 passengers and the World Odyssey which functions as both a travelling university and a residential home to more than 700 undergraduate students.
Cudjoe expressed excitement about the upcoming season when there will ne 85 cruise ship calls between Trinidad and Tobago.
"Our goal is to achieve more arrivals, more visitors and more tourists so that the tourism industry will contribute its part in maintaining a robust economy and optimum level employment," she said.
