Tourism Officials to seek increased cruise calls to Dominica

Tourism Minister Ian Douglas

A four member delegation will attend the 18th Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Conference carded for  October 3 – 7, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Minister for Tourism and Legal Affairs, Hon. Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of the Dominica Air and Sea Ports Authority and Chairman of DDA Board of Directors Mr. Benoit Bardouille, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Tourism Mr. Colin Piper, and Head of Product Development Ms. Kathleen Cuffy will represent Dominica at the conference.

The main objectives of the Dominica Delegation at the  annual conference are to hold discussions that will ultimately result in an increase in cruise calls to Dominica, to increase cruise industry contact base, to discuss new initiatives with  cruise lines in terms of shore excursions, products and services offerings with a view to improving Dominica’s rankings on the guest experience survey.

The Hon. Minister will be part of the discussion between fourteen FCCA member cruise lines and Ministers of Tourism.

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21 Comments

  1. 1979 LIVES!!!
    October 3, 2011

    why we does let them police look a likes into our government nuh, look at mister face boy. hmmm SMH 8)

  2. What R they thinking
    October 3, 2011

    I wonder……. really, what this government is doing for Dominica cuz i really dont see it getting involved with a bunch of communist countries, shunning the US, allow this swarm of chinese to invade( its not like they are providing jobs for dominicans, chinese work for chinese) and i do realize im a bit off topic but this just caused me to want to vent. All we do is borrow money and look like some idiots that can not and do not know how to manage our country.
    To the point i think its great these folks attending this conference thingy in Puerto Rico (ooohhhhhh i have my visa wtfeva) but in all honestly what are they going to pitch the capital is the first place anyones see when they enter dominica by ship and it looks terrible run down buildings garbage crazy people its scary for the person thats not accustomed to this environment. That 27 grand palace thats being built into developing Roseau! Repaint the buildings make the town seem friendly and well taken care of your capital shows alot wealth, standards, safety it provides a certain feeling about the island on a whole. Example Curacao every building in that town has the same theme same colors the owners of the businesses didnt pay for that the government did it. Which tourist in all honestly is going to come off the boat and feel invited and safe to walk through Roseau to give the Rasta man making shoes a sale? None cuz its dirty. The mentally challenged insane are roaming the street like its a carnival, the last time i was in town i could have sworn that crazy skinny lady was going to knock me on my ass the stream of obscenities that trailed out of her mouth was just ridiculous about my privates and my mother me dominican was just so scared and embarrassed what about the unsuspecting visitor? I say dominica cleans up Roseau in all aspects maybe you cant afford to but new roads and sidewalks throughout Roseau but im sure its somewhere in that budget to renovate some buildings, pay some street cleaners every week or so to clean up and find some where for these mentally unstable ppl to go or seek help or whatever. We need to make change if we expect anything from this conference.

  3. G.I Joe
    October 3, 2011

    For those of you who are critical of the efforts to grow cruise tourism, one thing you need to understand is, the government can grow both sectors at the same time.

    What cruse tourism brings to the island is a large volume of people. Many times more than we would ever see in stay-over visitors. The stay-overs will spend more on the island per visit, but if we can only take a small amount from the cruise visitors, multiply that by the number of cruiser who visit the island and suddenly we will see that they leave a nice tidy bundle of cash on the island. That is how we have to approach cruse tourism. It is not an either/or proposition.

  4. LOL
    October 3, 2011

    Anp tourist into Dominica will help BUT…Mr. Minister and the others..do not go asking ppl to increase cruise to Dominica when yesterday..THE DAY BEFORE the cruise season was to begin..i was driving through Roseau and not a SINGLE thing has changed from the LAST DAY OF LAST CRUISE SEASON. NOt even the roads were swept, no signs are erected,the streets were not properly marked..
    Don’t you guys think that the ship captains/staffs gives reports???
    At least when the season going to start next year can we PLEASE at least sweep and clean the streets of roseau??????

  5. The truth
    October 2, 2011

    To be honest, we need tourists but we need better security and a lower crime rate for them too. We also need proper hotels nearer the coast along with better, not more expensive, but better organised health care in case of emergency. To me, things like those are the important things. As for them going out to get ships that’s great. They should do all they can. The rest is up to us as Dominicans to entertain, make welcome and treat tourists amazing so they fall in love with dominica. Promotion from word of mouth is better than any advert

  6. FORKIT
    October 2, 2011

    your prime minister called the u.s ambassador a drunkard yet you going to a u.s country to try and get cruise ship, i thought you would go to china, libya, morroco, cuba, venezuela to make that deal, see how much boats you would get..dumba@@

  7. kiki
    October 1, 2011

    hey mister minister guess what…yesterday i went shoping and “TALK IS STILL CHEAP”

  8. The truth
    October 1, 2011

    Why these trips make the news and when they are back, no report on what has been accomplished and or success of the above. why all these people to attend one conference? fares,hotel accommodations,spending money and God knows what else at our expense….A million of these joy rides per year (for prestige)yet still no visible improvements. Poor Dominique

  9. me
    October 1, 2011

    Seems we’ve been down that road befoe. Honestly, this is a waiste of time. How do you expect to get cruise ships coming to Dominica and you have not changed the main cause of most of them pulling out, and No it is not the Taxi drivers or how things are on the port or the Island is not clean, it’s much deeper than that and I want to believe the authourities know but try to ignore it….Hope we as a people will rise up one day and realize what is crippling the main stay of our economy. The others who mentioned promoting stay overs are correct but it might be much harder than they think. Then you have the high price of flying and liat is not making it any cheaper. You could pay half of your air fare and take a 1 week cruise. We must remember the economy world wide is not what it was 5 years ago…….Good to talk about, maybe some ideas here might help people in the High Offices, if they chose to listen to people.

  10. October 1, 2011

    thank you for help

  11. AYE DOMINIQUE
    October 1, 2011

    Another gaspeeya lajean….these people are really taking this joke too far.

    Ian, Collin, Kathy, Benoit, put them all in a bag, shake it, open it, you’ll see nothing.

    As someone rightly said, why spend so much pursuing cruise ships when hoteliers on the island continue to be challenged. Find a way to fill those hotel rooms, and if you think that the taxi drivers will be left out you need to think again, study the multiplier effect properly…

  12. Mr.Walcott
    September 30, 2011

    Lobbying for more cruise ships to the shores of Dominica is very good, but something needs to be done about the indisciplined Taxi Drivers. Most of the problems the industry is faced with stems from the Taxi Drivers. There are things the governments could have handled differently, to make things better, but speaking from what I have seen, the drivers/opperators must take most of the blame for the present condition of the industry. I blame the autorities for not enforcing the rules and regulations to curtail the indiscipline of those who brought disrepute on suce a fargile indistry. When Carnival pulled out from Dominica and blamed the high cost of fuel, that was just a gimmick on the part of Canival. Price cutting by both Tour/Taxi Opperators; to as low as USD $5 round trip to Trafalgar and some of the other sites is just one of the reasons for they pulling out of Dominica. It is my prayer that Carnival comes back to Dominica, not only during the regular season but also during the off season as well.
    Thanks

  13. Gracious
    September 30, 2011

    Its just another fun trip for these guys and a waste of tax payers money.

  14. Dominica qui do
    September 30, 2011

    Tourism is very competitive, and all the Caribbean islands are doing whatever they can
    to encourage and promote visitors, and there
    is nothing wrong with that. These conferences
    are annual.Whether a tourist comes by sea or
    air what ever penny the visitor spend it is a penny that is in the economy. The vendors
    the taxi drivers gain a livelihood.It is not
    about the Minister it is for Dominica. your
    country, my country.

  15. sandw
    September 30, 2011

    “evolved” – I agree. Cruise ships are great, but the disembarking passengers are actually told not to take much money with them, and for those who don’t even leave Roseau, the experience is not necessarily a good one. Stay Overs are the ones who spend money, experience the island fully and are able to give good recommendations to their friends back home.

  16. Evolved
    September 30, 2011

    When will Ian and the rest of thos realize that pursuing cruise tourism is only an easy way out. Don’t get me wrong, I support cruise tourism but not at the expense of promoting stay over tourism. Ian you and your staff get off your rumps and begin suitable promotion of Dominica in key markets – stop trying to fool the populace.

    • G.I Joe
      September 30, 2011

      So how will attending this conference reduce their effort to increase stay-over tourism?

    • WIKILEAKS
      September 30, 2011

      Evolved lets look at this from a moral/Ethical/strategic/professional..whatever…why would these people try to fool the populace on something that is so intrinsicly tied to them. This is their bread ans butter.

      You might not like their perfomance, but they are not fooling the people. Stop it

      Hey, please shut the door on your way out

      • Anonymous
        September 30, 2011

        wikileaks;

        dont you think that you’re intruding into another man’s intelectual space.

        you should get an original name and then your originality will “show”….

    • September 30, 2011

      why dont you get off your tooshes and tellpeople about Dominica, you have a part in this. Help Ian , just dont talk and do nothing

      your talk is cheap and full of malice.

      • One Love
        October 1, 2011

        8-O like the3 27000000 palace

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