BASSETERRE (13th December, 2016): The St. Kitts Cruise sector continued to bustle with major activity when the destination welcomed four cruise ships with a total maximum capacity of more than 10,000 cruise passengers.
Callling on St. Kitts today was the Celebrity Equinox, the Azura, TUI Discovery and for the first time to the island, the Seven Seas Explorer.
Hundreds of visitors could be seen on Port Zante visiting retail outlets and vendors for jewelry, clothing, art and craft.
Local tour operators were kept busy with various excursions throughout St. Kitts, including scenic island tours, hiking in the rainforest, safari treks, catamaran sailing; and also creative and specialty tours such as a tasting tour to various local food vendors in Basseterre, or merrily bar hopping to various liming spots in St. Kitts in an expedition truck.
The cruise sector is growing and our people must take full advantage of the available opportunities, said the Minister of Tourism, The Hon. Lindsay F.P. Grant.
“It is exciting to see our local people being creative and focused in doing business in this vibrant sector,” Minister Grant said. “With four ships in today I cannot stress enough how important it is that we continually strive for excellence, as it is the memory of the experience that we provide that will ensure our visitors return to our lovely island, to all of our benefit.”
Cruise ships will make a total of 391 calls to St. Kitts in this cruise season, with 16 new ships arriving here for the very first time.
In the last cruise season (2015-’16) cruise ships made 373 calls to St. Kitts, bringing 913,716 passengers, which was the most ever in a cruise season. This cruise season (2016-’17) is expected to be another record breaking season with a projected arrival of 1,125,927 passengers.
