SHIP TALK FROM TOURISM AGENCY

THE 21,000 cruise ship arrivals in Trinidad and Tobago this year is a mere drop in the bucket of 19.2 million such tourists in the Caribbean.

Trinidad Tourism Ltd., the State agency, said the arrivals were 81 per cent higher than that last year.

Company CEO Carla Cupid boasted about the number of tourists and the foreign exchange that it has generated.

“Vessels are coming almost to capacity,” Cupid said.

But there was no mention of the fact that all other regional tourism destinations have bounced back after the Covid-19 shutdown, each attracting many more visitors than T&T.

After the epidemic, 19.2 million tourists came to the Caribbean, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the US Virgin Islands, and other popular destinations.

But that was only 63 per cent of the record 30.4 million set in 2019.

While the T&T market is struggling, every other Caribbean port of call is thriving, according to figures produced by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).

The organisation said that cruise ship visits to the region were four or five times more than in 2021.

The eastern and western Caribbean recovered 55 per cent and southern Caribbean improved by 51 per cent from the number of arrivals in 2019, the CTO revealed.

The American market spurred the growth, and there were also visitors from Europe and other parts of the world.

In St. Kitts-Nevis, there were some 350 ship calls, with a total of 450,000 passengers.

More than 500,000 cruise ship tourists went to Antigua-Barbuda last year.

Barbados saw around 200,000 passengers.

In each Caribbean country, the cruise ship industry is booming once again.

The CTO anticipates “more recovery and expansion” over the next few years as the world re-adjusts after the Covid-19 closure.

All the major cruise ship lines call on the popular Caribbean destinations, some several times a month.

T&T, which has always been the odd-in-man-out in Caribbean cruise ship arrivals, remains a poor player in the industry despite international advertising and costly visits by tourism officials to global trade shows.

But Cupid is thrilled about the number of arrivals, stating that visitors “go downtown and engage in shopping…”

T&T is the subject of the most stringent travel advisories issued by the developed world for the Caribbean.

The United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries have warned their nationals about the high incidence of criminal activities and advised them to stay away from certain well-known tourist attractions.

Those countries have virtually stated that there should only be essential travel to T&T.

 While statistics confirm that T&T is not a prime destination, Cupid said all of her organisation’s efforts “have now translated to more port calls and new lines coming on board.”

The local tourism authorities have provided comparative regional statistics.

But the raw figures suggest that they are simply engaging in ship talk.