By: Anthony Morgan

Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said the country stands to significantly benefit from two more cruise lines homeporting in Montego Bay.

The Aida from Germany already homeports in the second city, usually coming in on weekends to pick up cruisers out of Europe for a Caribbean tour.

Both the Norweigan and Viking cruise lines are now looking to join Aida to base vessels in Montego Bay as the industry looks to restart from the fallout caused by the COVID-19 crisis. All cruise lines were left idle for a year.

These two lines have now looked to Jamaica where they can home port with minimum difficulty, according to the Minister.  

He said Viking also plans to start a first for the island as their itinerary looks to capitalize on Jamaica’s multi-destination experience.

Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett

“That one is exciting, it would be the first of its kind for Jamaica but it also involves quite a bit of logistics and we’re engaged a bit in the discussions about that one in particular because if we can get it right then we would have something of a blueprint for the entire cruise resumption,” said Minister Bartlett.

The Viking itinerary would see the cruise starting in Montego Bay then head off to Falmouth for a day. Ocho Rios would be its next stop followed by Port Antonio then onto Port Royal. It would then make its way back to its home port in the second city where a new set of cruisers would start the experience.

Minister Bartlett said while there are similar key elements at each port, the itinerary has the potential to be successful as each location has its own identity and offerings which cruisers will get to explore for the day.

“We’re the only one in the Caribbean that has so many ports of call with short excursion experiences that allows for this kind of itinerary. Here you’re talking about a day where you can explore the hinterlands of Trelawny for example and experience the cockpit country. You certainly don’t get that in Montego Bay. Even the agricultural produce, the cuisine, all of that is different so I do think there is a point of differentiation in the locations,” he said.

Norweigian cruise, on the other hand, has proposed 2 itineraries from Montego Bay to other territories.

The Minister said the first would leave Montego Bay to make a stop in Ocho Rios. From there it would go on to Cozumel, Mexico and possibly Roatan in Honduras and then back to Montego Bay to send off that group and receive the next. He said it should have roughly 3000 persons in the first instance.

The second itinerary would see the cruise also making a stop in Ocho Rios before heading to the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) and back to Montego Bay.

Minister Bartlett said he’s hoping for an August start for the activities, noting that the country continues to put measures in place to ensure the safety of all stakeholders.

“We’ve been looking at a very robust set of protocols, taking some of what the CDC [Centres for Disease Control] says, but Jamaica has had its very strong protocols in relation to cruise activities. At the start of the pandemic, we were leaders in insisting on certain parts of the protocols,” he explained.

“Now that there is an ambition to start cruise, the discussions are resuming and we have very detailed arrangement that the cruise will need to comply with and the cruise themselves have got to require certain things of us. That’s how it goes,” he added.

Having reopened the borders since June 2020, Jamaica was a prime location for the cruise lines. Minister Bartlett said Jamaica’s air lift capacity and proximity to the US market were also factored into their decisions. The country has access to more than 220 gateways in the US.

He added that while the homeporting arrangement will initially last for three months, it will bring some value to the economy. The arrangements also depend on how the pandemic develops.

“It’s not that it provides as much foreign exchange as the overnight sector but it has immediate convertibility so that as the ship gets into port the dollars start to flow in the pockets of Jamaicans immediately,” said Bartlett.

He added that homeporting will create more jobs for locals and provide opportunities for services and commodities such as bunkering, agricultural produce and locally made beverages.

“It will also help us to develop capacity for accumulators in the business, in particular, the movement of goods, storage,” he said. 

Jamaica’s tourism industry has slowly been recovering from the effects of the pandemic. The island lost 130,000 jobs and US$2.5 billion in foreign exchange during a difficult 12 months.

Tourism expenditure, which the Minister said “goes into the pockets of the people” went down by US$154.7 billion. For the full 2020 calendar year, just 484,000 visitors came to Jamaica. The industry earned US$600 million for the island. 

Minister Bartlett said the COVID-19 protocols have been working fairly well to claw back some of that loss with US$300 million earned so far this year from 285,000 visitors. Some 40,000 jobs have also come back on stream.

For the summer season, Minister Bartlett said the country has 850,000 air seats lined up, noting that in August, the country should see about 70% of the number of tourists who visited in 2019.

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