By Noel Thompson, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE A'ROSA Blu cruise vessel made its inaugural visit to Montego Bay on Saturday, signaling yet a further boost for the city's tourism sector.
The German-based vessel, which is part of the Seetour operated fleet, will make weekly calls at the Montego Bay Cruise Terminal every Saturday until March 29, 2003. It has a capacity to carry between 1,600 - 2,000 passengers.
Unlike other cruise vessels, which only make calls at the Montego Bay Terminal, the A'Rosa Blu will use this facility as its homeport. This means that all its passengers will embark and disembark from that port.
"It will be a win, win situation all around. Local agents will be employed to load the vessel, screen passengers and check the vessel. The passengers will also do local purchasing, which could create lots of employment and this will reach quite deep into the economy," said William Tateham, vice president of Cruise Shipping and Marine Operations for the Port Authority.
Tourism Minister, Aloun Assamba said she was pleased to have the vessel in Jamaica. "We thank you for taking the decision to make it Jamaica. We hope that you will make it Jamaica every season from here on. I also want to thank everyone locally, who has contributed to ensure that this ship's homeport is Montego Bay," she said.
Mrs. Carole Guntley-Brady, Director-General in the Tourism Ministry described it as a great thing for Jamaica. "The positioning here as a homeport is wonderful. All I am asking is that all of Jamaica, especially Montego Bay and its environs, rise to the occasion and show how good we are in what we do. This can be the start of many more homeports," she said.
Asked how would the local community benefit from the vessel's weekly visits, Mrs. Guntley-Brady said: "This will be a two-week vacation package where the passengers will fly-in to Jamaica and will spend one week on the island. Others will holiday on the ship for a week and vice-versa before flying back home.
"We want to do more of that. We are actively promoting Jamaica in Germany to ensure that we increase our business from there and with the A'Rosa sailing from here it is just another opportunity for us to do that," according to Mrs. Guntley-Brady.
In the meantime, Seetour has selected six hotels in Jamaica where its passengers will spend a week of their vacation before and after joining the vessel.
Mrs. Guntley-Brady emphasized that it was important that everything went well between now and March when the Jamaican voyage ends, so that it would become automatic for the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) to re-negotiate to have the vessel do future business with Jamaica.
Captain of the vessel, Dr. Friedhold Hoppert, said he was quite satisfied with the facilities at the Montego Bay Cruise Terminal.
Sailing out of Montego Bay, the A'Rosa Blu will make calls in the islands of Oranjestad, Aruba, La Guaira, Isla Margarita, Venezuela and Willemstad in Curacao.
When the A'Rosa Blu completes its voyage to Montego Bay on March 29, 2003, it will set sail onto the Transatlantic East to the sunny archipelago of the Canaries and will make scheduled stopovers in Tortola, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados, Madeira and La Palmas.
