St. Kitts Hosts FCCA Operations Team

The FCCA Operations team welcomed by Minister Grant included: FCCA President Michele Paige; FCCA Operations Team Chairman and VP Operations, MSC Cruises (USA) Inc., Albino Di Lorenzo; Director, Worldwide Operations, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Jamie Castillo; Associate Vice-President of Government Relations for Latin America & Caribbean, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Andre Pousada; and Director, Commercial Homeport Operations, Carnival Cruise Line, Carlos Estrada.

Following a tour of the new second pier at Port Zante, the FCCA Operations team in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and St. Kitts Tourism Authority addressed local cruise industry stakeholders during a meeting held on Monday evening. They spoke about the overall success of the destination, the need for more unique signature tours to differentiate St. Kitts from other Caribbean islands that are either already capable of accommodating Oasis and XCEL class ships or in the process of building piers that are able to do so, the need to ensure guest satisfaction with local customer service providers, and the need for multilingual tours and signage to enhance the guest experience. The meeting was very well attended, with a large number of local cruise industry stakeholders turning out to learn more about the cruise lines and cruise sector development as well as how to best service cruise guests.

St. Kitts exceeded one million cruise passenger arrivals in the 2017-2018 cruise season for the first time in its history, then did so again for a second consecutive year in the 2018-2019 season.  It is the only destination in the OECS ever to reach the million-passenger milestone. Having reached it, St. Kitts is now considered by the cruise lines to be in the same marquee port status category as much larger destinations in the region.

About FCCA:
The FCCA is a not-for-profit trade organization composed of 21 member cruise lines operating nearly 200 vessels in Floridian, Caribbean and Latin American waters. Created in 1972, the FCCA’s mandate is to provide a forum for discussion on tourism development, ports, safety, security and other cruise industry issues. By fostering an understanding of the cruise industry and its operating practices, the FCCA seeks to build cooperative relationships with its partner destinations and to develop productive bilateral partnerships with every sector. The FCCA works with governments, ports and all private/public sector representatives to maximize cruise passenger, cruise line and cruise line employee spending, as well as enhancing the destination experience and the amount of cruise passengers returning as stay-over visitors. For more information about FCCA, visit www.f-cca.com.