Cruise ship season officially kicks off this week
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-THE first of an estimated 438,000 cruise ship passengers for the 2008/2009 tourism season will arrive on St. Kitts’ shores this Friday (Oct. 17), and stakeholders are being urged by the St. Kitts-Nevis Hotel and Tourism Authority (HTA) to make the most of all opportunities.
Michael Head, Manager of the HTA, said that the arrival of the 850-passenger Marco Polo this week should be yet another reminder for all businesses connected to tourism to “make sure your property is in prime condition now so you can get out there and market it”.
The call for preparedness fits snugly with the recently announced theme of Tourism Awareness Month, ‘Tourism - The time is now, the opportunity is yours’, as this season will see the largest number of passengers ever coming to the Federation, a 4.3% increase over the roughly 420,000 of the 2007/2008 season.
However, the HTA Manager advised that tourism stakeholders not look at the increase in guests as a surefire sign of profits, given the current economic conditions in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
“Because of the state of things right now I do not think it will be a brilliant season, but it should be ok if people take the right actions,” he said. “We would advise businesses not to reduce the amount of money they are putting in their marketing campaigns, but rather increase them because they are competing for a smaller market share.” ~~Adz:Right~~
Head also advised business persons to “prepare for the usual dips in business because we all know by now when they are going to be throughout the year”. He cited the lull from late April until the St. Kitts Music Festival as one such example.
In the sector of airline travel to St. Kitts-Nevis, Head stated that it was not all doom and gloom ahead for the Federation.
“The announcement that British Airways would be beginning flights from London to St. Kitts in January should help us a lot. We really could not have received a better piece of information because that may help us diversify our market away from just the United States.”
He also noted that American Airlines’ decision to increase direct flights from Miami to St. Kitts would likely offset the cancellation of many American Eagle flights to and from Puerto Rico.
Whatever actions individual stakeholders take to prepare themselves for the 2008/2009 tourism season, Head said the most important thing to do was take action.
“If you just sit back and wait to see what happens because you think we might have a bad season, then you are going to have a bad season. It is going to be tough, but I have no doubt that it will be alright.”
