Dominica tourism industry makes major progress six months after Maria

The Fort Young Hotel in Roseau, Dominica has re-opened more than half of its rooms while many cruise lines are resuming visits to the country’s two cruise ship berths. Photo Credit: The Discover Dominica Authority.

March 18, 2018 marked six months since a powerful Category 5 hurricane slammed the island nation of Dominica.

Six months following Hurricane Maria, Dominica has made major progress in restoring routes to and from the island, essential services and amenities, and transportation throughout the island.

“Nothing is better for our recovery from Hurricane Maria than visitors to our island,” says Colin Piper, CEO of the Discover Dominica Authority. “We have made significant progress in getting the island ready for guests. Whether it’s for a relaxing getaway, special event or meaningful travel, visitors will see the same vibrant spirit of our people and beautiful scenery and features that make Dominica the Nature Island of the Caribbean.”

The Fort Young Hotel in Roseau, Dominica has re-opened more than half of its rooms while many cruise lines are resuming visits to the country’s two cruise ship berths. Photo Credit: The Discover Dominica Authority.
Access

Dominica has full connectivity to international and regional markets with regular flights offered by regional carriers including LIAT, Seaborne Airlines, WINAIR, Air Sunshine, Coastal Express Carrier and, most recently, InterCaribbean Airways. As of March 22, 2018, InterCaribbean Airways will operate nonstop scheduled services between Dominica, St. Lucia and Tortola. Chartered flights are also available via Sky High Aviation Services, and Trans Island Air.

The Douglas Charles Airport, located at Melville Hall, and the Canefield Airport have welcomed passengers since October, 2017. Connections are available to Barbados, Antigua, San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Tortola, St. Thomas, Anguilla, St. Lucia, St. Croix and St. Thomas.

Air access has been expanded with night landing available at Douglas Charles Airport until 8 p.m. for public flights and until 10 p.m. by special arrangement.

L’Express des Iles fast ferry service was operational within a few weeks after Hurricane Maria and provides service between Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Lucia. L’Express des Iles has partnered with Air Caraïbes to offer simultaneous airline and ferry bookings with connections to L’Express des Iles destinations. Booking can be made on www.aircaraibes.com through the NavigAir programme.

Accommodations
A total of 393 hotel/guest house rooms are available. This represents 41 percent of the total stock of 962 rooms available before Hurricane Maria. Fort Young Hotel will open additional rooms and Secret Bay, Calibishie Cove and Citrus Creek Planation are expected to reopen in the last quarter of 2018. Two additional properties, Jungle Bay Resort and Cabrits Resort Kempinski, are expected to open during the first half of 2019, and Anichi Resort late in 2019. The opening of these three hotels will increase Dominica’s room stock by 340.

Sites and Attractions
The majority of sites and attractions, 19 of the 23 on the island, have been officially declared open to visitors. These include the signature sites of Trafalgar Falls, Middleham Falls, Emerald Pool, Fresh Water Lake and the Indian River. Visitors can enjoy magnificent easy to moderate hikes across the island including, Syndicate Nature Trail, Cabrits/Fort Shirley and others. Diving tours are currently available with six dive operators offering dive tours at all of the key dive sites on the north, south and west coasts of the island. Divers can explore a world of incredible underwater vistas and discover why Dominica is ranked amongst the world’s top ten dive sites.

Voluntourism Packages
Dominica encourages visitors to get involved in meaningful tourism by considering a Voluntourism package. These unique packages are offered to assist Dominica with the cleanup of sites such as the Indian River, dive sites and the Waitukubuli National Trail. Packages are being offered by the Tamarind Tree Hotel, Fort Young Hotel, Secret Bay, Cobra Tours, Cool Breeze Tours and Cabrits Dive.

Cruise Travel
Before Hurricane Maria, Dominica was on course to receive 219 cruise calls during the 2017-2018 cruise season. This number has since been reduced to 34 calls and the country welcomed the first cruise vessel following the hurricane on December 28, 2017. The Sea Cloud II anchored off Portsmouth and one month later, the MV Mein Schiff 3 of TUI cruises docked at the Roseau cruise ship berth. Since then, the island has received an additional 16 cruise calls. Carnival Cruises is expected to make a total of five visits, commencing with three in July, 2018.

The people of Dominica continue to show their resilience and steadfastness in building a better Dominica. In mid-February, the country celebrated Carnival and plans are in motion for the 9th Annual Jazz ‘n Creole on May 20, 2018 at Fort Shirley in the Cabrits National Park, along with fringe events in Portsmouth on the weekend of the Jazz ‘n Creole main stage.

Plans are being made for World Creole Music Festival from October 26 -28, 2018 followed by the island’s 40th Anniversary of Independence celebration on November 3, 2018.

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22 Comments

  1. Sisserou and Jaco
    March 26, 2018

    The most successful comeback since the passage of Hurricane Maria is YACHTING yet no mention of this is made in Collin Piper report. Total shame

    And why are they afraid to mention the situation at Picard with all those 3000 plus empty rooms that will be empty until the end of 2018 maybe well into 2019.

    if you guys are reporting…please report honestly if you want your information to gain credibility and acceptance by same

    Total shame… :lol: :lol: :lol:

  2. Chester
    March 26, 2018

    Woo what level of idocy in many of these comments. Mostly do-gooders who stay comfy outside of DA and write crap but never set foot in DA to at least attempt to fix their parents’ dilapidated houses. Like they were not hit by a major devastating storm, all they want is to lay hands on the millions they heard ‘pledged’ by other countries. I don’t like everything the government does either, for me it could be Linton charged with rebuilding DA. Neither he nor Skeritt is an expert on rebuilding after devastation of that magnitude. This is bigger than we are. Stability is in our favor. Stop the fighting to run a broke 3rd World country, we can’t have a new government start from scratch at this time. Not-gon-happen. Come home first. See what happened in Antigua and Grenada, come home first. You all too comfy overseas writing crap. Stop it!

  3. KID ON THE BLOCK
    March 24, 2018

    You Dominican people in the diaspora mingling and associating with other people other than your home land, how often do you hear them criticize their country to you? Ain’t you ALL a shame?
    Bear in mind that you never miss the water till the well runs dry. The day will come when YOU ALL will wish you were back home. Enjoy while it last.
    P.S But some of you can’t be blamed because some of you can’t even buy a ticket and still depending on your people from Dominica to send you monies to pay your rent.

  4. Art
    March 23, 2018

    Colin Piper and everyone employed at the DDA should be fired for incompetence. Their ignorance of the reality of the situation is obscene. The DDA should be disbanded, it is a complete waste of money and has had zero impact on travel to Dominica. Ever.

  5. Yahoudim
    March 22, 2018

    People should be proud of your country.

    • Toto
      March 23, 2018

      Of course they should be Yahoudin.That’s why I’m so pissed with Skerrit for making me feel embarrassed instead.

      • Chester
        March 26, 2018

        Ya but while you are comfortable overseas, ours is not about who’s running the island. All politicians simply want to lay their hands on “The Money”. They will dip into it instead of SKERITT. 6 or 1/2 a dozen We know your pick for dipping into it, none are experts in anything, they’re all poised and ready; like the Africans.

  6. zandoli
    March 22, 2018

    Colin, while you are saying Dominica is open to receive tourist, why haven’t you pushed to have Domlec electrify the rest of the island more quickly. There are areas in Dominica that still lack running water. Fix these things and more people will return to Dominica’s shores.

    Whatever happened to the 40th Anniversary of Independence celebrations? Is that on hold?
    I had planned to visit DA during that period, but I have not heard much about it of late.

  7. My bad
    March 22, 2018

    I don’t know about that. The evidence on the ground sure says something completely different. But the again Collin Piper is the CEO and has every reason to be hopeful. I guess Dave Cameron president of CW would have said the same thing after wI qualified for the WC yesterday though it was because of rain and poor umpiring

    • RandyX
      March 22, 2018

      Just a good dose of DLP propaganda, nothing else. The incompetence of this man fits well with the incompetence of the government.

  8. Faceup
    March 22, 2018

    Really ??? Came to DA recently is like Russian Rolette playing with my life driving around DA. A yway its just plain poverty..

  9. DOMINICA AVIATION
    March 22, 2018

    We need ro negociate for Winair ro start back operations @ Canefield TDCF and check out Cape Air for flights to St.Thomas and San Juan fro Canefield.

    • DOMINICA AVIATION
      March 22, 2018

      And also Tradewind Aviation.

    • Malatete
      March 23, 2018

      It is evident that even relatively high air fares do not produce adequate profits for carriers on this route. Put simple unless we can offer improved load factors airlines will be reluctant to service Dominica. We need more visitors, which is hard to achieve under the present circumstances.

      • zandoli
        March 23, 2018

        Have you looked at the composition of the airfares? Half or more goes to taxes and fees to the various regional governments.

  10. Enough is enough
    March 22, 2018

    Honnestly when I read this kind of article, I really wonder why we are still complaining….
    In fact everything is all right, !!! Everything is perfect. We almost better than before.
    But wait everything is ready for tourist …….but where are they?

    • RandyX
      March 22, 2018

      That’s a very good question. Perhaps they all stay in the Moroccan Hotel in Portsmouth enjoying local coffee from our very own coffee factory and fresh chicken from our own abbatoir in Layou.

  11. prophet for a profit
    March 22, 2018

    major? Place is still a mess.

    • Man bites dogs
      March 22, 2018

      @ Prophet for a profit, Where were you when we were cleaning up ?just to let you know my wife is from Jamaica two days after the hurricane she put on my boiler suit and waste no time helping to clear the debris in Roseau, so who ever you are keep your cake hole shut!!

      • Ibo France
        March 22, 2018

        Man Cooks Dogs – You have made yourself irrelevant by your constant preposterous remarks. Have you ever once tried to repudiate gibberish? Your time could be better spent improving your poor spelling, bad grammar and your awful punctuation. Stop being a pathetic idiot. It seems like you get superlative pleasure making a moron of yourself.

  12. KID ON THE BLOCK
    March 22, 2018

    Labor ka twavi… Something to be proud about in just six months.
    While THEY criticizing, demonstrating, spreading white powder, and liming in town, Labor working.
    D country nice boy!

  13. Wow
    March 22, 2018

    Please !!!!! Get real.

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