JLP calls for boost to cruise shipping sector..... Robinson said that, currently, there is a "gross lack of direction" from the government on cruise shipping.

Monday, August 11, 2014 

OPPOSITION spokesperson on tourism and cruise shipping, Shahine Robinson, has called for a stakeholders' team to be established to address the problems affecting Jamaica's cruise shipping sector.

Robinson urged Minister of Tourism Dr Wykeham McNeill, in a news release last Friday, to pull together a stakeholders' team to boost berthing capacity and cruise ship arrivals; balance the cruise ship traffic spread across the resort towns; and make the resort towns more attractive.

She suggested that the team should focus on aggressively courting major cruise lines; balance the cruise shipping traffic to include Port Antonio, which has massive potential for exclusive boutique tourism, and make the resort towns too attractive to be ignored by visitors.

Robinson said that, currently, there is a "gross lack of direction" from the government on cruise shipping. She pointed out that her concerns have come on the heels of recent announcements by the world's largest cruise operator, Carnival Cruise Lines, of its intent to develop a US$70 million cruise ship port in Tortuga, Haiti, and its scheduled opening of a another port in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. more