Growth in cruise activity increases economic returns in Dominica

There has been an increase in cruise ship calls to Dominica in 2103-2014
There has been an increase in cruise ship calls to Dominica in 2103-2014

Dominica’s cruise industry is continuing to see steady growth with the Ministry of Tourism confirming that the 2013-2014 cruise ship season saw a considerable increase of 32.8 percent in cruise passengers to the island.

“We have had good reports from our stakeholders in terms of business. Throughout the season we had a cruise ship in Port basically everyday and that has been very good,” Kathleen Cuffy, Head of Product Development of the Discover Dominica Authority stated in an interview with the Government Information Service (GIS) on Tuesday May 13th, 2014.

Tourism statistics reveal that in 2012, the island saw 128 ships call into port with a total of 212,316 passengers.

In 2013-2014 Dominica welcomed 195 cruise ship calls, an increase of 23.4% to the previous year. As it relates to actual tourist arrivals, Cuffy revealed that there was an increase of two hundred and eighty one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three passengers, an increase of 32.8%.

Statistics also revealed that back in 2010 Dominica’s cruise industry suffered a major blow as a result of the decision by Carnival Cruise Lines to pull out from the island, after serving the destination for 21 years.

Cuffy stated that while the cruise industry is still suffering the effects of the decision by Carnival Cruise Lines, the island’s cruise sector is not doing too badly.

“We are not where we would like to be as we were in 2010. Upon the pull out of Carnival, we lost a ship which made approximately 40 calls per year, so that has drastically reduced our amount, nevertheless the calls that we have had throughout this year’s season has been very good and they have been increasing as we see from the numbers, “she said.

Cuffy added that this year’s cruise activity generated good economic returns for the island.

“In terms of the amount of money spent by each visitor, it is about EC$90.00 per person. On average there are about 2000 passengers on these ships and so if they each spend EC$90.00 you can well understand the multiplier effect. The vendors, the tour guides, the taxi drivers all benefit from that,” the tourism official stated.

Cuffy further revealed that quite apart from the revenue being generated visitors continue to take advantage of the many attractive sites.

“They are also quite accessible to the cruise visitors. You will appreciate that their time on island is very limited. A cruise person may never necessarily get to the Boiling Lake because it takes approximately 6 hours to get there, so we try as much as possible to make sites available that are easily accessible.”

Cuffy told the GIS interview that to complement the existing highly visited sites the Ministry of Tourism is seriously looking to develop other nature sites across the country.

“We try to ensure that there are new and exciting things happening. We are looking to develop a couple new sites including the Spanny Falls, the Jaco Falls, and the Sultan Falls in the Castle Bruce area.”

She noted that a number of existing sites will also be enhanced to guarantee even greater visitor experience.

The Tourism official said the reviews from the passengers about their experience on the island have been encouraging.

“The feedback from the passengers has been very good. They are very happy about the type of cultural entertainment that is put in place for them. The musical entertain that is provided for them upon arrival on Dominica, impact positively on them and we want to continue to do that in the next season.”

While feedback from cruise visitors about Dominica is good, the tourism official admits that there is no place for complacency. She said the Discover Dominica Authority (DDA) will continue to make available training opportunities available for stakeholders in the industry.

“Some of them have started already, as we speak we have a tour guide training programe in Spanish, we have vendors training, we had a training exercise for taxi drivers last week. We want to take the opportunity during the slow months to just reiterate what it is that stakeholders have to do and to allow stakeholders to realize that they are ambassadors for the tourism product in Dominica and it is important that they provide good service.”

According to Cuffy, the Government of Dominica through the Ministry of Tourism will also continue to negotiate with new cruise lines about the possibility of doing business with Dominica.

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14 Comments

  1. John
    May 16, 2014

    I live in the US and there are not enough articles in US travel magazines about Dominica, also people in the US need to be made more aware that there is two Dominica’s in the Caribbean you would be surprised to know how many people still get the Dominican Republic and Commonwealth of Dominica confused even the US Postal service more needs to be done to erase the confusion. Even on that TV series Man Woman wild filmed on Dominica east coast people still believed it was the Dominican Republic they did not know it was the Commonwealth of Dominica that hurts the tourism industry. More need to be done to set TV producers straight to make them get it right they need to be corrected when they make a mistake.

  2. dominican
    May 15, 2014

    well said Derp

  3. Need to Know More
    May 15, 2014

    This is just all talk… manipulation of figures but the reality is nothing is really happening. The sector is starved for growth, arrivals are low and these people are just trying to justify the inability to move tourism forward… there is just too many mixed signals coming from DDA and they know it… stop trying to fool the people with your lies about growth in tourism particularly cruise tourism… we know better than that

  4. hope
    May 15, 2014

    :lol: good for us … the “tourism people” are working hard with what they have. I cheer you on. A positive report!

  5. Joe
    May 15, 2014

    I would like to hear more about what is being actively done to enhance the experience for them and entice them to spend…discounts, attractive package discounts to the ships(yes you have to give the ships discounts on packages so they can offer them back to passengers) etc. etc.

  6. joe
    May 14, 2014

    dno I carried a survey I im a taxi driver and every taxi driver u ask did u save this year all they a replying is u mad this year was the worst year inspite of the increase in cruise ship arrivals do ur own survey.

  7. joe
    May 14, 2014

    sultan falls is not in castle bruce its on the way to warner via the ponecase route

  8. Not a herd follower
    May 14, 2014

    According to the DDA official: “In terms of the amount of money spent by each visitor, it is about EC$90.00 per person. On average there are about 2000 passengers on these ships and so if they each spend EC$90.00 you can well understand the multiplier effect.”

    The computation of expenditure by cruise visitors in the manner suggested by the DDA official is misleading since not all the passengers on the ship come on land. A sizeable number typically remains on the ship.

    A more reliable spending figure is obtained by multiplying the average expenditure by the actual number of cruise visitors who come and spend some time on shore. And I hope the average expenditure is derived from surveys that are done periodically.

  9. Kim
    May 14, 2014

    I’m not sure of the cost but Dominica would greatly benefit from tv commercials on the US even if it’s just In FL

  10. Kim
    May 14, 2014

    Great article but yes global marketing will generate a greater return then just cruise visitors.

  11. huh.
    May 14, 2014

    I thought Colin Piper just said it was stagnant…

    • Anonymous
      May 14, 2014

      u ppl dont read and understand u must be a UWP supporter

    • Mahaut Boi
      May 14, 2014

      if u read wa piper seh i think he was referring to ferry arrivals NOT cruise ship arrivals. the headline is what was misleading.

  12. derp
    May 14, 2014

    cruise ship visitors are good, you know what is even better, stay over visitors, the ones’ that come on holidays… Dominica needs serious global marketing, and also Dominicans need to have some pride, such as stop dirtying your NATURE ISLAND…

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