Another tourism official has added his voice to talks about the impacts to cruise revenue in Dominica after the loss of Carnival cruise line.
For 21 years Carnival made weekly calls to Dominica, but announced last November it would not continue, reportedly due to economic reasons. Now that the 2010/2011 cruise season is closed, officials have been lamenting the pain Dominica’s economy will feel from Carnival’s decision.
The latest reaction has come from Chief Executive Officer of the Dominica Air and Sea Ports Authority Benoit Bardouille, who said officials are expecting “a major dent in the season because this is the first year in a long time that we are not going to have any ships calling in during the summer months.”
He noted that some cruise vessels are moving to Europe thus affecting cruise business in the Caribbean.
Even so, Dominica saw about 237 cruise ship calls in the just-ended season and more than 400,000 passengers, Bardouille disclosed.
I have taken so many cruises all over the Caribbean and Dominica has needs to boost it tourism infrastructure in order to compete with the other Caribbean.
1. Lacking thing to do in Roseau not enough things for tourism to buy i been, the last time i was there only the old market was open.
2. More historical sites in Roseau the post office should have a little history museum attach to so so tourist can pay to come in to see.
3.. Cruise ship birth needs major upgrade, if you drop your wallet down in the sea it goes. i have only seen that in DA.
While our government is parading behind a few Chinese donations and claiming worthiness and success the government is miserably failing in the basic areas of economic and social development. Like a broken record I will continue to replay events leading up to the announcement that the cruise ship company was moving out . Those events include the mayor of Roseau public acclamation of Roseau the cleanest city and conducive to cruise ship tourism and then the Skerrit tirade about community development and bus drivers. I knew that these government officials were just smoke screening the incident in an attempt to fan the flame away from the inefficiencies of an administration caught in a few Chinese dollars while failing to build on a foundation built by previous administrations.
The DLP administration had been very fortunate, in fact the most fortunate administration in the history of Dominica. The DLP came into government while the Chinese fiesta was spreading through the Caribbean and the Chavez favors for the hijacking of bird island and flaunting of his arrogance on the world stage. While the money was readily available and china undertaking and self performing the various projects all the DLP government is suppose to do is to enhance just a few areas of development. Instead, the basic requirements for tourism went down the drain; Agriculture went into oblivion, health care and education not even on the back burner but behind the stove gathering cobwebs. Like a dear caught in the headlight the government went into a wasteful mode – the inception of a red clinic; personal enrichment and corruption among government officials. Gross government misconduct unprecedented.
Arguably the only organized political party in Dominica fail to maximize on the opportunities while the two other political parties are/were in shambles. In a negative sense the DLP did make use of the degrading UWP- they took the people’s support for granted.
While this government boast and lie about the economic development of Dominica the people cannot genuinely state , feel or see the economic improvement in their daily lives. The reasonable person can easily see that the administration is struggling to find direction. An obvious flaw in the DLP administration lies in the fact that there are too many “ Square Peg round Hole” occurrences- starting with the various ministers.
The comments by this self righteous person have offered no solutions or useful information to help Dominicans . It appears he likes mellifluous sound of his voice as he pontificates and
orchestrates all the ills of Dominica. Everything he points out requires a tremendous amount of resources ;which Dominica does not have. Help Dominica for a change and point out the successes and progress made over the past 5 yrs and the rapid recovery from 2 hurricanes .
I am a dominican living abroad and have cruised into the port in Roseau. On my cruise, I visited Dominican republic, Tortola, Antigua, Dominica, Barbados and St. Kitts. Dominica was the most beautiful. And I am not saying that just because I am a Dominican. Every country my husband and I visited, we were harrased by taximen trying to take you to some site for cheaper than the cruise offered or chioldren or ‘paros’.
Most people that we were with, preferred to come onto the island and get a cheaper deal than the cruiseline offered for excursions. So, I support the taximen offering better deals as long as they avoid harrasing or pressuring the tourists.
Cruisers are not rich people. They work very hard and save for that one vacation. So no one should assume that because they are on vacation or off a different race or from a different country, that they have money. Because you will be very wrong.
Dominica has the most beauty than what any of the other islands offer. It was my husband’s first time to the island and he loved it terribly.
One of the problem is that no one knows about the island. When the cruise director was annoucing our destination to Dominica, I was the only one cheering loudly. We are just lacking advertising of our country. And most people think the Dominican Republic and Dominica are the same.
Another problem is, many of the cruisers are retirees. So knowing that most of the points of interest have some hiking, the opt not to take that excursion. One the cruise, the directors tell you which excursions havemost hiking and which is less. The ones that did not require much walking was the one to the botanical gardens. And since every place have a botanical garden, people were not as interested. We have soo many rare and drop dead gorgeous attractions but these seniors just cannto get to it because of the terrain.
Dominica need to find creative ways of getting these people to these breath taking areas without the wear and tear of hiking that many of these seniors cannot bear.
No one likes to be harrased or begged. It is one of the greatest turn offs while travelling. All the islands that we visited, we were begged and harrassed at the port of call and around the towns.
To greatly attract tourists, we should be one of first islands to take proactive steps in eliminating the visitors from being harrassed by locals. Law enforcement should greatly enforce. If this is done, then we will be able to get more people to come in. Because one of the greatest need of a human being is feelings of safety (as per Maslov’s Hierarchy of needs)
hate the american and like their biscuits….we should have lots and lots of vessels from China and so on and so forth
With all due respect to the many comments that I am reading we seems to be straying from the point. The main concern according to the Cruise line is the crime situation in DA… we need to learn to deal with facts relating to issues rather than propagana….Let us address the perceived hike in crime situation in Dominica… This I am told is the concern…
It should come as no surprise that the cruise ships visits are declining. Dominicans must look at their island from a tourists point of view. As soon as these visitors get off their ship, they are harassed by a multitude of people all trying to part them from their hard earned money. The beggars are the worse – they can be seen following the visitors relentlessly. And the police do nothing. The taxi drivers are less persistent, but there should be an organised system like Antigua, where taxis/tours are booked at a desk, so everyone knows the price in advance, and no rip offs.
Then you get to the piles of rubbish in the smelly streets, and in fact all over the island and even the beaches and waterfalls show many remnants of local parties and picnics. What happened to these bins for the public? Why is this beautiful island so dirty?
Roseau streets smell of urine, men going to the toilet all over, barely turning their backs.
In many places, Customer Service mainly varies between indifference and rudeness. This is NOT what tourists expect.
Roads are full of holes, and many drivers going too fast and not holding their own side of the road.
Half built hotels, derelict buildings and rusting vehicles spoiling the countryside.
Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE Dominica, and have adopted this stunningly beautiful land with her friendly people as my home.
But it seems to me that some people are forgetting the tourist has perhaps only 2 weeks holiday from a very stressful environment every year, and they of course are going to CHOOSE the best place to spend their own money. And Cruise ship operators ask their customers which islands they prefer, and cut out the least favourite first.
Is Dominica the best place? It could so easily be so – please, Ministers, sort out the basics before trying to compete in this very competitive market.
this is the best comment i have read since coming to this site!!i could not have said it any better.i beg dno to highlight this one
I’m hoping that these visitors are treated with utmost respect and courtesy by all tourism stakeholders (drivers, operators, vendors, etc). Above all, revamp the City of Roseau: cleaner city, move all the residents from the downtown business district, pressure wash (and paint) all government buildings, and build a world class cruise village, with a mall, mini theme/adventure park (to get the passengers off the ships)…
Incentives:
What if each cruise passenger were to receive one free hotel night… good for their next visit to Dominica? Or what if each cruise passenger were to receive a discount (paid by D/ca) on their airline fare (value up to a certain amt) to Dominica. The catch is that they’d end up spending way more in D/ca than these luring discounts.
Folks, all it takes is to find innovative solutions to attract the next tourist to the country. THink people, think!
tourism is a sexy good looking woman with sensitive skin…neglect the basics and you’ll be in (shock & awe) if u get the picture….
great analysis, need to share that with discoverdominica
one day mr minister will be honest and speak the truth
Just seen the article, interesting and felt that one of the many points i feel strongly about is the negative climate which the cruise ships operating in Roseau puts the population throuigh. if you come from the south the aggravation starts at the pre and primary school drop off in Newtown. there the system of drop-offs of children has resulted in the traffic to Sisserou.Then it is compounded when you approach roseau central when leisurely pedestrians pass your vehicle. The average Dominican says Oh svyz when they see a cruise ship in port. How do you feel it translates to the interaction between “locals” and the cruise passengers.
very true.
First, let me start by saying that Dominica is a beautiful island. The sad fact is that our island needs people with a long term vision to marry the following sectors (Agriculture, Tourism and Agro-processing). Some years ago the budget allocation changed i.e the ministry of Tourism started receiving more money than the ministry of Agriculture; this change seemed to surface after talks of the banana industry was found to be in tremendous decline. Now, I believe in diversification and crop rotation which would sustain our Agricultural sector despite the decline of bananas.
Now, we have a situation where the Tourism Industry stands to take a hit. My personal openion about the impending situation is that we need to draft plans that includes the private sector and stop taking advice from a few individuals who sway the debate of development per their own business plans. If the government use a different strategy that involves everyone in business there will be more ideas to draw from for the development of our country.
We are at a cross-road now and no amount of critizism will benefit anyone and, so we need to develop a “Think Tank” such that ideas from Dominicans from every cross-section without a name tagged; the reason for my position of submitting information without name is to avoid polarization due to party affiliation. Therefore, the ideas will be in the best interest of the country development and most important is the independence of the members running this organization.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
I would like Mr Yvor Nassief the answer these questions: Now that we have come to the end of the Tourist Cruise season, what do we fall back on? Now that Carnival has pulled out what do we fall back on?
My humble advice: Do not neglect Agriculture for Tourism, the two can go together, we have to feed the tourists when they come to visit. Ever heard of Agro-Tourism Mr Nassief? It can be done in Dominica. I blame you for the dismantling/distruction of the Agricultural sector in Dominica when you made the comment that “Dominica has to move away from this Third World economics of bananas/agriculture and get into the Service Industry” or words to that effect. Mr Nassief also repeated twice on a program with Mr Arthie Martin that “Agriculture is dead!”
Now that the season is closed, what do we do? Go back to the land and plant, produce value added products such jams, nectars and juices form our agricultural raw materials.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, we need to better understand our clientele – their likes, and just as importantly, their dislikes. On the latter, from my own observations, one of their pet gripes is being hassled. At that goes for all cruise ship destinations.
Furthermore, we need to take advantage of the fact that 400,000 people paid their fare to see what Dominica has to offer. Our challenge is to meet their expectations, for here is the potential for 400,000 long-stay visitors. Tours alone are not the answer.
Even though Tourism Officials, namely, Minister of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, D/ca and Sea Port Authorities, Discover Dominica Authority et al were all complacent and not doing the right things, even though Carnival Cruise line and other lines pull out of Dominica, at the end of the month, those working in those institutions, are sure to receive their salaries. It is those at the lower end of the tourism business who will suffer.
Many of the farmers who sold their fertile lands to buy buses to transport tourists will reel in pain. Meanwhile the bus dealers will be bathing in the bath tubs of $$$$$ obtained from the sales. Those taxi operators who took loans from banks or Credit Unions as well as those small business entrepreneurs who took loans thinking business would be booming in the Tourism Industry will not be sleeping soundly knowing that every month they have to get money somewhere to pay back their loan. Families of all those who depended on those who took the loans to go into the Tourism business will suffer.
The standard of living of those persons will certainly get worse. Poverty will increase. Many More people will be climbing the stairs of the Financial Centre with hands outstretched hoping to get something from the ‘Corruption Clinic.’ The Minister of Finance will be pleased to see the crowd who will revere him as the Father-giver. In the next Auditor’s Financial Report regarding operations of ‘That Corruption Clinic’ about where $$$$$$ go, how the $$$$$ were spent the amount under the Heading, ‘OTHER’ will increase significantly. No Transparency or Accountability would continue to be the Buzz words. The slogan, “Tourism is everybody’s Business” will ring louder in the ears of those who are made poorer. Many will be deafened.
WHY CRY OVER SPILT MILK,MOVE ON WHATS DONE IS DONE.
Sad,,tourism is still necessary for our little Caribbean islands economies! That is a big loss for Dominica.
I know for a fact the Caribbean Cruise Line has been telling their passengers whom by the way are very dissapointed that the reason that they are moving from Dominica is because of the spike in crime in that country… DNO must investigate this… not sure what the excuses coming from the politician or the Cruise line management… Our perceived crime spike is not a dream but a reality… perception to many is a reality… We need to fix that…
What do you expect – tourist cannot walk properly in the town. They have to be jumping filty drain after drain – something they don’t see in their country. It’s about time Roseau is sanitized and pedestrianized rather than spending money uselessly. It’s possible and we will have the tourist coming in droves.I hope someone take heed because the town thoroughfares has been forsaken too long.
TO THE DOMINICAN OFFICIALS TO ARE LAMENTING OVER THE LOSS OF REVENUE BECAUSE OF THE CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIPS. AGAIN I SAY TO YOU ALL, THAT DOMINICAN SHOULD STOP TAKING OTHERS FOR GRANTED. CASING POINT IS YOU ALL SHOULD TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE TREATED. FOR 21 YEARS THIS CRUSE SHIP HAS BEEN COMING TO DOMINICA TO SPEND THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY. AND WHAT DO THEY GET FOR THAT IN RETURN? POOR SERVICE. EXAMPLE, I PERSONALLY HAVE WITNESSED A NAKED MAN WITH NO UNDER GARMENTS NOR PANTS ON WITH HIS PRIVATE PARTS HANGING WALKING ON THE DAME EUGENIA BLVD WHILE THERE ARE TWO CRUISE SHIP DOCKED OUT THERE. NOW THE IRONIC PART OF THIS, IS THAT THE POLICEMEN WHO CALLS THEMSELVES DOMINICA’S FINEST STOOD THERE AND DID OR SAY NOTHING TO THIS MAN. SECONDLY, THE TOURIST ARE BEING VICTIMIZED BY THEY BEING ROBED AT ATTRACTION SITES AND ALSO ARE BEING HARASSED BY THE PIRO’S. AGAIN THE POLICE STANDS STILL AND DOES NOTHING. SO MY PEOPLE, DON’T YOU THINK THAT THOSE PEOPLE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THAT AFTER SPENDING THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THE ISLAND WHICH GOES TO SUPPORTING A GREAT DEAL OF YOU ALL? THE ANSWER IS YES. AND SO, THEY HAVE DECIDED TO STOP COMING TO A PLACE WHERE THERE IS NO LAW TO PROTECT THEM. SO YOU ALL HYPOCRITICAL PEOPLE, STOP POINTING FINGERS AT ONE ANOTHER AND START DOING THE RIGHT THING FOR A CHANGE.
i agree 100%.when the ppl come with their little children walkin the town,thats not what they wanty to have their youths see(although its hypocritical bcuz their telivision is full of dem same nudity 24/7),while on their vacation.so time them paros be taken to a place they can be checked and released when they are fit,time for roseau to get sum rubbish bins and be mentained daily,time for them old benches on bay front to be fixed or replaced, time for dat thing they call fountain to be a real fountain, time for dominicans to stop slumbering or else 1day we ll wake up with a few white men running the country…..
Time for a major clean-up and modernisation program in Roseau, Portsmouth,vendors and all aspects off the tourism business in D’a otherwise we’ll be back to depending on selling bananas. All Dominicans need to educate themselves into the expectations and standards demanded of the 21st century and stop looking for excuses.
why doesn’t skerrit take credit for that one! he seems ta take credit for everything else.
I think they will return, I was checking their itinerary and see they have Dominica listed for a time in the future. Dont know if it was an oversight on their part but I notice they will come in Dec of 2011. Lets hope so.
where you see that give us the source of your information so we could check out to see if is true
They said it’s because of economic reasons.we might be too costly for them.i hope some will not blame the gov’t or the opposition
Well i guess now we will have to ask ourselves as to what we were not doing right.Its like when a good girl gone bad she is gone forever.
“He noted that some cruise vessels are moving to Europe thus affecting cruise business in the Caribbean.”
Time to reposition and become less dependant on Cruise vessels.
Carnival is still very present in the Caribbean. They are just not coming to Dominica. Victory for example goes to St. Lucia, Barbados and St. Kitts.
If they choose to leave us out after 21 years someone must be doing something wrong.
We seem to have gotten the point and have started cleaning up some things in order to be more competitive.
My only concern is that a lot of things can be avoided if we take a proactive approach to tourism rather than a reactive one.
Also, don’t rely so much on tourism because the cruisers don’t spend that much money here. They mainly spend it on the cruise.
Nat .. you hit the nail buddy.
Having a cesspool of buses and bus drivers block every nick and cranny in Roseau street “hustling” and “harassing” cruise passengers giving fractions of the cost the cruise organizers are giving from the sales office on the cruise was one of the biggest problems. Then we have “paros” harassing passengers for money to feed their habits and I could understand if they are doing it off the streets, but the problem is they are doing it in the secure zone of the cruise passenger area.
Yes, Victory is still going to St. Lucia and St. Kitts, so it’s not a regional thing but an island specific problem that was not profitable .. bottom line!
Nat, I would not simply concentrate on other things or drive resources elsewhere, the cruise industry is easy money. It’s like building an airport for the rest unfold. Build it and they will come. We have the facilities, lets develop it. Canefield Airport should be turned into a cruise terminal hosting two ships all at once with a diagonal dock going straight out and wide enough.
Canefield Airport should be turned into an economic-zone i.e.; a movie theater, office space, a 200 room hotel, restaurants etc. It’s prime real estate only a few miles away from the Roseau area. The government needs to embark upon reclaiming at least fifteen acres of land in the Roseau area for cruise ships. This would create ample parking for buses and taxis plus a permanent market for vendors to sell their products.
A road leading directly from the tourism zone would allow buses to travel directly to Elliot Avenue and help reduce congestion in Roseau.
a theatre is a good idea.but gota be run properly.cant be watching a movie in da cinema dats already on dvd or tv man!! and not 1 little room with hard plastic benches and no ac.if it goin be done dem better do it right or not at all!
Wow!!! What a novel idea. I like this perspective. Maybe the businesses can make this happen I would love to invest in this proposal.
We paid a lot of money for a Dominica Master Plan in Tourism so I think we should follow it.
The tourism village these people were talking about is in the master plan but they want to do it in a different location. It makes no sense when you get advisors and then you do not do what they say. The Dominica master plan has some short commings and some things need to be revised but in principle it is good so I think they should follow it because we already paid.
The village was proposed at the woodridge bay and idea was laid down in the master in relative detail. Why are they not doing that instead of talking about canefield which will be more expensive and need to be planned from the ground up.
If we do not have money to waste why do we not use what we already have.
In Tourism a very high part of the cost is planning and it would be madness to scrap the plans we already have and start new ones. Again from the cost perspective we have already paid the CHL consulting group for there professional opinion. SO why not follow it.