Geisha Kow­lessar-Alon­zo

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad’s up­com­ing cruise sea­son is ex­pect­ed to be an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant gain for the in­dus­try.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Tourism Trinidad ex­plained that build­ing up­on the achieve­ments of the 2022 to 2023 sea­son, ini­tial pro­jec­tions in­di­cate that ap­prox­i­mate­ly 88,000 pas­sen­gers and 30,000 crew will set foot on Trinidad’s shores, ush­er­ing in an in­flux of eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty, cul­tur­al en­rich­ment, and bound­less op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal busi­ness­es.

This rep­re­sents an es­ti­mat­ed 82 per cent in­crease in pas­sen­gers from last sea­son, it added.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly, Tourism Trinidad stat­ed that the sea­son be­gins in No­vem­ber and runs till April the next year.

This year the first ves­sel, Seabourn Pur­suit, is ex­pect­ed to vis­it on Oc­to­ber 11, 2023.

“Of note, there are ten in­au­gur­al vis­its and five new cruise lines in­com­ing for this sea­son. They are Seabourn, Ex Po­laris, Vic­to­ria Cruis­es, Sil­ver Seas Cruis­es and Salen Ship Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny,” it added.

The last cruise sea­son show­cased the re­mark­able po­ten­tial of Trinidad’s cruise in­dus­try.

Ac­cord­ing to Tourism Trinidad, a to­tal of 48,243 pas­sen­gers ar­rived via 29 calls at the Cruise Ship Com­plex in Port-of-Spain. The tourism pro­mo­tion agency said this past sea­son ex­em­pli­fied the is­land’s abil­i­ty to of­fer a re­mark­able ex­pe­ri­ence to cruise vis­i­tors from around the world.

“The eco­nom­ic im­pact of the pre­vi­ous sea­son was un­de­ni­able. Pas­sen­ger dis­em­barka­tion rate was at 80 per cent or four in every five pas­sen­gers with an av­er­age spend of US$43 per per­son. Pas­sen­gers en­gaged in var­i­ous ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing shop­ping for lo­cal hand­i­craft, savour­ing the is­land’s culi­nary de­lights, and ex­plor­ing its vi­brant cul­tur­al her­itage. This in­fu­sion of spend­ing pow­er gen­er­at­ed sub­stan­tial rev­enue for lo­cal busi­ness­es, in­vig­o­rat­ing sec­tors such as re­tail, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, trans­porta­tion, and en­ter­tain­ment, and con­tribut­ing to the over­all eco­nom­ic growth of Trinidad,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion fur­ther ex­plained.

Tourism Trinidad CEO Car­la Cu­pid added that em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties flour­ished as the cruise sea­son un­fold­ed, not­ing that lo­cal guides, tour op­er­a­tors, taxi dri­vers, craft ven­dors and ser­vice per­son­nel played a piv­otal role in en­sur­ing an un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ence for cruise pas­sen­gers.

“This surge in em­ploy­ment not on­ly pro­vid­ed in­come for in­di­vid­u­als, but al­so fos­tered skills de­vel­op­ment and con­tributed to the growth of the lo­cal tourism sec­tor,” she said.

Cul­tur­al ex­change was a high­light of the pre­vi­ous sea­son, as vis­i­tors im­mersed them­selves in Trinidad’s vi­brant fes­ti­vals, tra­di­tion­al mu­sic, and food.

Tourism Trinidad stat­ed that the down­stream ben­e­fits of the cruise in­dus­try ex­tend­ed be­yond tourism, cre­at­ing a rip­ple ef­fect that stim­u­lates var­i­ous sec­tors of the econ­o­my. The com­pa­ny said there were ben­e­fits for lo­cal busi­ness­es in agri­cul­ture, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and trans­porta­tion sec­tors, as sup­pli­ers ex­pe­ri­enced in­creased de­mand for their prod­ucts and ser­vices.

“Ships were sup­plied with lo­cal pro­duce, seafood and oth­er vi­tal items. This col­lab­o­ra­tion fos­ters eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and con­tributes to the over­all growth and re­silience of Trinidad’s econ­o­my,” Tourism Trinidad said.

It not­ed that as the 2023 to 2024 cruise sea­son ap­proach­es, Trinidad stands ready to wel­come pas­sen­gers seek­ing to em­bark on an un­for­get­table jour­ney.

“Draw­ing in­spi­ra­tion from the suc­cess­es of the pre­vi­ous sea­son, Des­ti­na­tion Trinidad is poised to de­liv­er an ex­cep­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence, high­light­ing its un­par­al­leled nat­ur­al beau­ty, rich cul­tur­al her­itage, and warm hos­pi­tal­i­ty. With each pass­ing sea­son, Trinidad so­lid­i­fies its po­si­tion as a pre­mier cruise des­ti­na­tion, of­fer­ing a gate­way to ex­plo­ration and dis­cov­ery for trav­ellers from around the world,” Tourism Trinidad added.