Dominica welcomed the MV Mein Schiff 3 of TUI Cruises on Sunday January 28, 2018.
The ship brought well over 2000 passengers to the destination’s shores. This was the first major cruise call to Dominica and the first call to the Roseau Cruise Ship Berth post Hurricane Maria.
Dominica’s ability to welcome visitors to the island after the level of devastation experienced just over four months ago has been described as an incredible achievement and has instilled much hope among its citizens and stakeholders within the tourism sector.
To date, the Government of Dominica through the Ministry of Tourism and Urban Renewal has invested over $3 million on restoration of access, rehabilitation and upgrading of sites, and clean-up of debris post Hurricane Maria.
With support from the Ministry of Public Works and Ports, Forestry, Parks and Wildlife Division, National Employment Programme, Dominica Solid Waste Corporation, and many other stakeholders in the public and private sector, the destination was prepared to welcome visitors across the island at various natural sites.
Passengers of Mein Schiff 3 engaged in many of the island’s shore excursions which included tours to the famous Emerald Pool, Trafalgar Twin Falls, Bois Cotlette Estate, Titou Gorge, Whale Watching tours and the island’s unique therapeutic black sand Mero Beach. The passengers all echoed the same sentiments stating that their experience was “Awesome and Enjoyable!” The passengers also expressed feelings of satisfaction in having contributed towards the economic and rebuilding efforts of destination Dominica.
The call of Mein Schiff 3 created an opportunity to contribute to the economy as vendors, taxi drivers, tour operators, tour guides and many other tourism stakeholders were impacted by Hurricane Maria. This call of Mein Schiff 3, resulted from a familiarization visit by executives of TUI Cruises to the island in December 2017 to assess the destination’s readiness for cruise activity. The MV Mein Schiff 3 is expected to make five (5) additional calls to the island during the 2017/2018 cruise season.
A series of cultural performances were organized throughout the day to ensure a favorable welcome experience to the passengers of Mein Schiff 3. A brief ceremony to include presentation of a plaque by the Honorable Minister of Tourism, Robert Tonge to the ship’s captain and staff in appreciation for the first post Maria call to Dominica, also formed part of the day’s activity. Tourism officials focused their efforts on ensuring a safe, secure and enjoyable experience for the cruise passengers. These included ensuring the islands sites and attractions were accessible and ready for cruise visitors, rehabilitation of the Roseau Cruise Ship Berth to receive cruise vessels, and clean-up of the city to receive our very special cruise visitors.
The Ministry of Tourism & Urban Renewal and the Discover Dominica Authority is thankful for the cooperation of all tourism stakeholders in playing their part to ensure a welcoming and enjoyable experience for cruise visitors to the destination.
For the good of the country, I earnestly hope that every possible effort would be done to ensure that normalcy would prevail as quickly as humanly possible. Shrewd and inspirational leadership is critical if that is to be achieved. May the economy grow from strength to strengthen for the good of the people.
I wish they woul publish the passenger review surveys of this all important first call as soon as possible. It is not that I want to castigate anyone in particular but if there are negative points they need to be remedied straight away and to share such information with the general public would make everyone aware and help to focus our attention. After all, isn’t tourism everybody’s business?
DNO, please tell us who made that statement to you: the passengers all echoed the same sentiments stating that their experience was “Awesome and Enjoyable. Was it the ministry of tourism, the captain of the ship or the passengers themselves who made that statement to you?
As stated on Sunday a few friends of mine are on the ship and they made totally different statement to me ranging from having felt intimidated and mobbed by vendors and bus operators to the sorry state of roads, the tourist sides and the island as a whole.
Please enlighten us, it would be interesting to find out!
ADMIN: This is a press release from DDA.
Press release from the DDA is by its nature propaganda to try and make everybody feel good and fall asleep again. Comments like these coming direct from the visitors’ mouth have far more credibility. Anyway, the future will tell soon enough. TUI is German company and if their customers are less than impressed with this port of call, we’ll know soon enough. They willsimply eliminate Dominica from their schedule. We need them more than they need us.
Thanks DNO. I thought as much. Propaganda and lies from Piper nothing but…
When will Dominica get to welcome “Yuk Tung”? I can’t wait to see our own Dominica registered ship that was used to violate UN sanction against North Korea
…..What a horrible low quality image, maybe one should ask for a better quality image