A project to expand the pier at the Roseau Cruise Ship Berth is to be implemented by the Dominica Air and Seaport Authority (DASPA) soon.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Benoit Bardouille, revealed that information during a ceremony on board the Carnival Triumph on Wednesday.
“From our side of the port, we are looking to newer things,” he stated. “One of the things we are trying to do is to extend this pier by another 150 feet to better accommodate the docks of the ships. That is one of the issues that we have and we are going to address that soon. We are also looking at re-establishing the new port facility to ensure that passengers can begin to enjoy a number of the things that they enjoy at some of the other ports.”
Bardouille also said Dominica will continue to strengthen its relationship with Carnival Cruise Lines.
“We in Dominica want to make sure that our relationship with Carnival is where it used to be to get calls,” he noted. “I know that based on discussions that we had, we are having about nine calls from Carnival Cruise Lines next season.”
On Wednesday the Carnival Triumph made its inaugural visit to Dominica.
The cruise line pulled out of the island five years ago citing increase in fuel prices as its main reason for ending its 21-year relationship with Dominica.
We urgently need a cruise village not an extension of that one in Roseau, Mr Bardouille where is the cruise village that your government spoke about during the election ( Blackmore) I guess that was just to fool the electorate as usual. We should build a good cruise village like SKB,SXM,ALU with we have to compete with the other island for more cruise ship call. We do have a better product to offer than these islands, but again the ruling government is not working in the right direction.
And the madness continues. They just keep announcing projects like wild fire.
One day the Moroccan Hotel was near completion and now nothing. Then there were the plans for the new hospital and now they’re uncertain where it will be built.
Rayburn fooled people in a vote catching scheme about cruise village at Portsmouth. No one has seen the studies for such a project or potential funding sources.
The PM announced night landing, then we found out it was a fraud. He then announced the Build Own and Operate or BOOT method to get us the airport. Now that elections are over we are in complete silence again.
These people actually think that they can just keep fooling people with foolishness. But, then again when you have conditioned your subjects, they will believe that green is blue and blue is actually green. Sad, but true.
this is area when the sea rolls ships are unable to dock yet the government sees it fit to spend money upon its expansion. why not build a tourist village and allow an other area of the country to develop? in doing so a sheltered area for landing of cruise ships could be created.
expansion? expansion as an entrance to a DUMP.
give me a break. clean your backyard first b4 inviting guests. shame on Dominica.
those electric poles with the disgusting wires need to be underground. passing with a rubbish truck is not enough to fix smelly roseau. shame on you city council and ministry of tourism.
CcL WILL NEVER return to this dump unless things change.
SHAMEEEEEEEEEEEFULLLLL
And all gutters in Roseau smells with restaurant waste, fix the gutters I cant do it alone,
do you ppl even read the articles before you make ur comments. this is what the man said “One of the things we are trying to do is to extend this pier by another 150 feet to better accommodate the docks of the ships. That is one of the issues that we have and we are going to address that soon. We are also looking at re-establishing the new port facility to ensure that passengers can begin to enjoy a number of the things that they enjoy at some of the other ports”.
We have no other ports for cruise ships other than Roseau Bayfront and Roseau Deep Water Harbour and limited facilities at the Carbrits. I know there is talk of repairing the Deep Water Harbour but even then that is not an ideal – or safe place to land tourists – mixing cargo with pedestrians is accident waiting to happen. So what other ports would mr. Bardouille be referring to but those mentioned? We should make both Roseau ports redundant for cruise traffic and build a new, dedicated facility but that is not what mr. Bardouille said.
regenerate roseau first or better try gentrification
My apologies fellow Dominicans. We are simply confused adn not sure what to do because the country does not have the money!
Aware we promoting more congestion in Roseau? What about the plans for a new cruise port and terminal at Canefield?
That’s a pipe dream. They do not have the money for such an expensive project. It was just an election ploy.
I am still awaiting the much needed hospital that Tim-Tim had promised years ago. Up till now, it has not been delivered.
stupes.what expansion you talking about.they should think about relocating not expanding. Roseau is so small and congested. when the cruise ships dock on the bayfront dominicans barely have access to the businesses there. blocking of the roads from by garaway hotel and by nassief sometimes up till 8 oclock at nights?nonesense.move the cruise ship berth to donkey beach area, fix the roads leading to the area and set up stalls for vendors around the area.
There is no coordination amongst ministries… the left foot have no idea where the right foot is going.
They need to have a central Project development and Management office – to oversee and coordinate all gov’t development projects. If a plan is not concrete/funded, it should NOT hit the press.
Visitors should never be disembarking at the Waterfront… it’s a disgrace.
Canefield’s airport should be expanded, and as well, the cruise terminal can be accommodated there. Some filling in of the coast line (both for airport and cruise terminal) would have to be done. We have enough quarries to support that.
This gov’t need a coordinated, strategic plan to take Dominica forward. They do too many haphazard developments all over the place… nothing seems to gel.
More money shouldn’t be poured into the Roseau jetty! Until they clean up Roseau entirely, no tourist should be dumped directly into such disgrace. The jetty there should be used for ferries & smaller craft.
speaking of which whatever happened to this Dominican Airline
https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/business/new-airline-offer-flights-florida-dominica/
That airline, CIT, never took off I’m afraid. I think it died when Dominican found out who was fronting it.
If you are confused so am I. What about the plans moving the cruise ships to Canefield?
In Dec.2010 (DNO Dec 13, 2010) Rayburn Blackmoore said that “plans are underway to transform Canefield into a cruise village”. And again, in May of last year (DNO May 9, 2014) he said that Govt. had big plans to turn Canefield airport into a buzzing cruise ship port. He also said that they had even two international companies lined up to accomplish this.
Now mr. Bardouille is in charge of both sea-& airports and I wonder if mr. Blackmoore was singing off the same hymn sheet as Mr. Bardouille because clearly that is not the same language we’re hearing now. Was all that just poppycock, a fairy tale to keep the public sweet? By the way Mr. Blackmoore, whatever happened to CARICOM airways that was going to operate from Canefield in 2010. Another fairytale?A bird that was sold before it was hatched?
those mad people just wakeup with nothing to say and just go on radio and babble all kinds of crap without any studies done, and they usually do it before elections.. .. I think we should call those fellars VIRTUAL MINISTERS.
Hehehe, maybe that is why they move Rayburn to law & order now, not to mention immigration or…. oh my God, Labour!??
Malgraysa, I was about to make a similar comment. This comment is consistent with the DLP decision to rename the Mellville Hall airport while there are plans to build an international airport.
I entirely support the/a plan that would create a tourist village. If you look at Phillipsburg in St. Maarten they have a really nice layout. The street are cobbled-stone and narrow, in a nice tight geographic area with no traffic on those streets.
There are nice bars and restaurants among the stores, there are casinos and shops. It is really nicely laid out. I do not believe we would achieve that in Roseau. It is almost like Phillipsburg was designed (maybe it was) specifically for the tourist trade. I was really impressed this time, because I was looking at it more critically (from a business and industry angle) than the last times I visited.
Provide an attractive place, with good quality products at reason prices and you cannot go wrong. You become a shopping destination.
Rayburn’s idea is a very good one, but they need to take it to fruition.
I just returned from a cruise and we visited Antigua, St. Kitts and St. Maarten among the other places we visited. This was my 6th cruise and I have visited most the of the islands in the Caribbean between Aruba and the Bahamas.
I have often heard that cruise tourist do not spend money in the islands. That is only partially true. On this particular cruise I observed the layout of the places where people spent the most money. Among the 8 islands we visited, the three I highlighted above were well suited to entice people to spend.
In St. Kitts and Antigua, you are funneled right into a shopping areas which are set up right out of the cruise terminal. There are nice shops selling good quality products – clothing, jewellery alcohol.
In St. Maarten, they know how to extract money from the pockets of tourists, on both the French and Dutch sides. They offer very good quality products at attractive prices. Many people waited until they got to St. Maarten to shop. That is what we need…
In the islands where tourists do not spend, you see the same cheap Chinese made junk. You also see vendor who are trying to make ends meet selling cheap trinkets. That is not what tourists want to buy.
We should take a close look at the set up in St. Maarten and copy some of the things they are doing. I tell tourist all the time that Dominica is by far the most beautiful of the islands, but our problem is, once they get there, we have not developed ways to make them leave their money on the island.
We keep blaming the tourist, but we need to take a look at what we are (or not) doing. If we do the right thing, we will see much bigger dividends from the industry.
Believe me, there people are retired and have a lot of money to spend. Do not believe the nonsense you hear that cruise tourist are poor. That is entirely not true. I met some people on the cruise and they are anything but poor. One couple at our dinner table was very wealthy.
Find a way to take the money.
In addition to having good quality merchandise, St Martin is also a free port. The city council has a responsibility to, at the very least, clean Roseau if not for the visitors, then for our own personal and environmental health. The dilapidated buildings fenced by rusty galvanized metal are common eyesores that frame otherwise picturesque carnival mementos, and this year was a good one. But you can’t sell that!