Ocho Rios among the best THE OCHO Rios Cruise Ship Pier is among the top 20 cruise ports in the world, according to Lloyd's Cruise International, a leading cruise industry magazine, which ranks cruise ports world-wide based on the number of passenger visits. Ocho Rios, Jamaica's most popular port of call, which received a facelift in recent times and continues to be developed by the local authorities, was ranked 11th among the top cruise ports in the magazine's June/July 2001 issue, a press release from the Jamaica Tourist Board said. The port was ranked 14th in the world last year and 20th in 1999. Ocho Rios received 306 calls and a total of 716,847 passengers for the year 2000. "This means that Ocho Rios has been steadily moving up the ladder. Ocho Rios boasts the world-famous attraction, Dunn's River Falls, which has contributed to the town's appeal as a preferred port of call," Director of Tourism, Fay Pickersgill pointed out recently. Montego Bay has also improved its position, moving up from 27th to 23rd in the Caribbean category. Montego Bay received 193 calls with 189,408 passengers. Currently, plans are being developed to establish Montego Bay as a home-port for major cruise lines. The Jamaica Tourist Board's General Manager for Cruise Shipping, William Tatham, said, "major engineering consulting firms will soon be visiting the island to assess what needs to be done to bring the port facilities of Montego Bay up to world standards." Jamaica can expect even further increases in cruise passenger arrivals when the major development programme in Port Antonio is completed. Ground has already been broken for a marina in that town. The top nine ports in the survey were all on the Caribbean Sea with four located on mainland North or Central America. The number one port in the world was St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, having moved up from number six to displace Miami which now stands at number three. St Thomas received 1.64 million passengers.
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