St. Kitts Delivers at Major Cruise Conference

The FCCA Conference is a four-day event designed to foster a better understanding of the inner workings of the cruise industry and help attendees improve their cruise tourism business. The conference provides forums for discussions on tourism development, ports, safety, security, and other cruise industry issues.

“St. Kitts is indeed open for business, and our recent cruise guests have had wonderful on-island experiences,” Minister Grant said. “However, when it comes to cruise tourism the Caribbean must work together to bring more ships into our region. Therefore, it was very encouraging to see that affected islands were recovering quickly due to the widespread support and resiliency of the Caribbean people.”

The cruise executives were excited about the work that has been done to refresh elements of the product, such as the painting of the Amina Craft Market. They also applauded the efforts of the tour operators to provide multilingual tours and the Government for facilitating on-going training for employees within the sector.

However, they stressed the need for growth and underlined the need for operators to be knowledgeable about the product and the tours.

Minister Grant pointed out that the ability to share the story of the destination is key to an exceptional guest experience.

“Failure to emotionally connect with our guests, results in a substandard experience. Our guests want to be immersed in the culture and authenticity of all that St Kitts has to offer. Our goal is to attract the visitor and to encourage repeat business by continuously refreshing the product through the diversification of tours and experiences,” Minister Grant said.