Belnavis: Because of the present berthing problem, Jamaica's cruise ship industry has not been able to grow and expand as it could and ought to. - FILE
VAAST upgrading of cruise ship facilities in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios starting next year is expected to ease a chronic situation which currently sees the island literally turning away cruise vessels because of serious berthing inadequacies.
The crunch has come because Jamaica's cruise ship business is growing beyond the island's present capacity to cope - with some vessels having to be turned away because of too few, and too small berths, according to the president of the Ocho Rios Cruise Shipping Council, Mr. Michael Belnavis.
The berths at the island's two main ports of call are to be expanded, redeveloped and reconfigured, to accommodate what Mr. Belnavis describes in a statement today as "a projected massive rebound" for Jamaica's cruise ship industry.
This will see the world's largest cruise ship ever built, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's ultra mega vessel, The Freedom Of The Sea, bringing over 4,000 passengers, plus hundreds of crew members, to Montego Bay weekly, starting next June, Mr. Belnavis disclosed.
BERTHS INADEQUATE
With this addition, Jamaica should next year experience a record-breaking year for cruise ship passenger arrivals - eclipsing the 2003 record year of 1.12 million (one point one two million) passengers, Mr. Belnavis reports.
He said Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jewel recently added Ocho Rios to its list of ports, and Port Antonio will have two more calls in 2006 over 2005 - up to 13.
But because of the present berthing problem, Jamaica's cruise ship industry has not been able to grow and expand as it could and ought to, Mr. Belnavis feels.
Out of Montego Bay's five berths, only three are able to accommodate cruise vessels, and Ocho Rios' three berths have also been proving woefully inadequate, Mr. Belnavis disclosed.
Terminal manager for the Ocho Rios Cruise Ship Pier, Dennis Richards, said he is expecting high cruise ship passenger arrivals for the winter tourist season, with some 170,000 visitors expected for December and January.
While not expecting the record 91,000 arrivals of last December, Mr. Richards said that so far this month, "We have had over 33,000 passengers so by the end of the month, we should have up to some 80,000 to 85,000," adding that another 90,000 were expected for January.
According to Mr. Richards, the Ocho Rios cruise sector was 'badly' affected by the hurricanes, but had fully recovered, and the arrivals for October and November had surpassed those for the same period last year.
Citing figures, he said that arrivals for October were 50,000, over 40,000 for October 2004, while "in November 2004, we had 70,000 cruise ship passengers and this year we had a total of 75,000."
Meanwhile, Mr. Richards advised that at least one cruise ship would be arriving at the Ocho Rios pier every day up to the end of this year and into January 2006.
- JIS News
