The absence of the cruise ship Carnival Victory at Dominica’s ports has dealt a blow on the 2010/2011 cruise season, reports say.
No official figures have been revealed yet, but Minister for Tourism Ian Douglas said the absence of Victory was one of the “hiccups” during the season.
“It wasn’t a great season in terms of how much [revenue] was generated,” he disclosed. Douglas said his ministry has to look closely at visitor expenditure and analyze the season.
Victory made its last call to Dominica on November 02 2010, after a 21-year relationship with the island. The cruise vessel, which made weekly stops here, said its decision was based on economic matters, citing high fuel costs.
Dominica continues to uphold a failed model i.e., cruise tourism as the answer to a vibrant economic generator. Although internal statistics continues to point toward a downward trend in the total number of visitors who stay on the island, we continue in earnest on a failed path.
Unless we add more amenities including easier air access and activities to engage visitors, we will continue grasping at straws. There are no activities to engage visitors, so why would they want to remain on the island for a week or more?
Nature tourism is also another failed concept. What happens to visitors who enjoy nature, but also enjoy other activities, such as para-sailing, wind surfing, playing golf, tennis and dancing the night away at a club? Guess they’re out of luck if they visit Dominica.
The more I read these empty speeches by tourism officials in contrast to our Caribbean neighbors, is the angrier I become. I’ve been fortunate to visit most of the Caribbean islands and we pale in comparison to what our competitors have to offer their guest.
The Roseau Market and the roads immediately surrounding the market is an eye sore. They need to be resurfaced immediately. The Roseau Market also needs to be rehabilitated immediately. And the list goes on and on. What is the Mayor of Roseau doing to address these concerns? Nothing as usual. Lord help us!
Guest satisfaction is a key component of the visitor’s experience to a destination and if the visitor’s overall experience is poor obviously the destination will be given a poor rating/score by that individual. Therefore much more will be required to be done to improve Guest Satisfaction on the island
This is the crux of the matter. I suggest that we request access to visitor feed back forms as therein will lie the answers. Criticism is valuable. For better or worse, we need to know how our visitors perceive us. Without that information, we’re lost.
Why don’t we become intelligent and have a diversified economy? Then, when the tourism industry suffers, we won’t be in “hot water.”
IAN DOUGLAS,
AS SOON AS YOU ARE BEING REPLACED AS TOURIST MINISTER, THE TOURIST INDUSTRY WILL RETURN TO IT’S ORIGINAL STANDING IN DOMINICA.
HOW CAN A MINISTER DO GOOD IN HIS JOB AND COUNTRY WHEN HIS PLACE OF BIRTH WHICH IS PORTSMOUTH HAS CHANGED FROM THE SECOND TOWN OF DOMINICA TO THE SLUM TOWN OF DOMINICA WHILE HE JUST SITS THERE AND COLLECT A MONTHLY SALARY? COME ON MR SKERRITT, YOU CAN DO MUCH BETTER, THAN HAVING THIS ALBATROSS HANGING AROUND YOUR NECK.
hey hey hey … leave Portsmouth alone. It is poor but is my home town. You may laugh but one day Portsmouth will be the center of tourism on the island … wait and see.
That Morocco hotel gonna change it all … you will see.
Ian my boy u forgot to mention the next reason for carnival pulling out .That reason is from guest feedback . i am pasting the article from USA TOday.the link is http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2010/09/dominica-dropped-from-carnival-victory-itinerary/111548/1
Dominica dropped from Carnival Victory itineraryComments 19
By Gene Sloan, USA TODAY
This item was written by Johanna Jainchill, who covers cruising for Travel Weekly. Jainchill is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log this week while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Citing fuel costs and passenger feedback, Carnival Cruise Lines will eliminate the Carnival Victory’s call in Dominica on its year-round, seven-day cruises from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Effective with its Nov. 21 cruise, the ship will no longer stop in Dominica, and will instead spend that day at sea. It will continue to call in the five other scheduled ports on its itinerary, St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maarten.
Carnival said that it conducted a study of fuel consumption which found that by removing a port from the itinerary and replacing it with a sea day, the ship could sail at a slower speed on a direct route to the following port, resulting in significant annualized fuel savings. In addition, Carnival said that Dominica was one of its weaker ports in terms of guest feedback.
ALSO ONLINE: A sneak peek at Royal Caribbean’s new Allure of the Seas
First reported on TravelWeekly.com, Dominica’s director of tourism, Colin Piper, said that Dominica is visited by several other cruise lines, and projects that more than 370,000 cruise passengers will visit in the 2010-11 cruise season, an increase over the year before.
Carnival said that passengers booked on the original Victory itinerary that included Dominica could cancel without penalty.
— Johanna Jainchill
Posted Sep 8 2010 1:58PM
Nothing to do with fuel cost. Read the article. Why would they bypass Dominica and sail on to Barbados? A no brainer, what happened, we forget our map.
The warning signs were on the wall but in our stubborn fashion we preferred not to see them. Yes, fuel costs had something to do with the withdrawal but only in the sense that the Carnival Victory’s profits on its calls to Dominica in the end hardly covered the cost of the fuel involved.Yet there are still those of us that cling to the belief that, after all the cruise ships must call because here we have attractions that compel them to do so. Believe me, you can have all the attractions in the world but if the cruises can not produce a profit they will not call. That is what we should concentrate on. How do we make it financially attractive for these ships to continue coming to Dominica.
Mr.Douglas,
Everytime you speak i have to wonder if you are really a douglas or a cutlass. The departure of Carnival Victory was hiccup for the tourism industry? Just a hiccup? Kool without the Gang!
tell us when you review the expenditure what you hope to come up with if you already stated:’It wasn’t a great season”?Isn’t the reason for decline in revenue self explanatory?
I have a suggestion for you and the Skerrit lead cabal.Simple have some crusie ship from China come weekly with a few 100 thousand weekly even the yen is devalued the quantity will add up hence boosting total revenue.Renegotiate the MOU and add this as a by clause.Much revenue will be made/become available to do projects.This will work fine once the Chinese tourists do not become citizens lolTourism citizenship.Once those sucker breath that sweet mountain air, they will abscorn the reboarding. Next thing you know D/ca become part of the one China policy.dasheen fig fishing building bamboo industries will just begin to be over produced. Then we are going to have diminishing returns to scale more man working than there is work.How about that Minister of …………
Something to think about.
my party only now u seeing that ,didnt you all said that there will be a ship to replace it,
Economic cost my foot- Tell the people the truth. The cruise ship opted out because ————–fill in the blanks . Here are a few clues- No government assistance for community day of service; Truck driver go help clean up your communities; Mayor Josephn Roseau is one of the cleanest city in the caribbean- that was said two weeks before it was announced that the cruise ship company was no longer interested indominica.
Dont pretend to be dounce or naive – answer the question mon answer the question.