Sep 22 St. Kitts is Open and Welcoming Travelers
Basseterre, St. Kitts (September 22, 2017) - St. Kitts is pleased to report that initial assessments have been completed and the island is resuming normal operations, as it was fortunate to escape major damage from the passage of Hurricane Maria to its south on Tuesday afternoon.
All hotels in St. Kitts are fully operational and those properties that do not engage in regular seasonal closures are open and servicing guests. St. Kitts' Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport (SKB) reopened and began welcoming flights on September 20. The Port Zante cruise pier did not sustain damage and St. Kitts is scheduled to welcome two vessels tomorrow - Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Fascination and Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas. Park Hyatt remains on track to debut in November.
We continue to extend our thoughts and prayers to our Caribbean brothers and sisters in those islands which took a direct hit from Maria and to everyone who has been or will be impacted by the storm. Our sincere thanks to those who have kept St. Kitts & Nevis in their hearts and prayers.
For anyone wishing to donate to the recovery efforts of those destinations that sustained more severe damage from the hurricane, two official Caribbean Relief Funds are:
The Caribbean Tourism Recovery Fund - www.tourismcares.org/caribbean
The Caribbean Tourism Association Hurricane Relief Fund - www.gofundme.com/hurricane-relief-fund-cto.
For the most recent updates on Maria, please refer to the National Hurricane Center. For more information about St. Kitts, visit www.stkittstourism.kn.
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Source:
Jul
31
Double digit increase in cruise ships and cruise
passengers to St. Kitts' Port Zante
The St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) is reporting double digit increases in cruise ship and cruise ship passengers in June this year.
SCASPA is also reporting double digit figures in cruise ship passengers and cruise ship arrivals for the first six months this year compared to the same period last year.
According to the SCASPA's Department of Finance & Statistics, there were 10 cruise ship visits in June this year compared to 7 last year, up 43 percent with a total of 28,566 passengers in June this year compared to 21,686 passengers, an increase of 32 percent or 6,880 passengers.
SCASPA figures also indicate that between January and June this year, 382,670 cruise ship passengers visited St. Kitts from 201 calls, up 18 percent compared to 327,100 passengers from 171 calls for the same period in 2013, an increase of 17 percent or 55,570 passengers.
Three Carnival ships - the Valor, Freedom and Breeze accounted for 21,045 of the 28,566 passengers who visited. 13,159 were onboard the Valor; 3,324 on the Freedom and there were 4,562 passengers on the Breeze, 4,562.
The month of June also saw the visit of Jewel of the Seas with three calls and a total of 7,446 passengers and the Freewinds with 75 passengers from 1 call.
Source: http://www.cuopm.com/?p=8075
Dec 04 St. Kitts Cruise Season Off To a Thrilling Start
BASSETERRE (4th December 2013): The cruise season got off to an excellent start in November with close to 80,000 passengers expected to have come ashore from 28 cruise ship visits.
Last week Thursday St. Kitts received four cruise ships calls, bringing a total of about 8,188 passengers to the island.
Port Zante buzzed with economic flurry as dispatchers directed tourists to tour and taxi operators to go sight-seeing, sea and sun bathing on the beaches, snorkeling, sailing to Nevis, horseback riding, golfing, casino gambling, shopping, biking and wide variety of other adventures.
Projections for the 2013-2014 season call for more than 700,000 guests expected from 183 ship days.
Also, 15 new cruise ships will visit during this season. One of those ships, the Carnival Conquest, visited the destination in November with 3,700 passengers.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority, Carolyn James, went onboard the Carnival Conquest to personally welcome the Captain, and present him with a plaque to commemorate the inaugural visit.
"The inaugural call of the Carnival Conquest is a testament to the quality of the destination's expanding infrastructure," James said. "St. Kitts can provide an authentic Caribbean experience that clearly appeals to cruise passengers."
James pointed out that St. Kitts' survival as a cruise destination depends on the ability of tourism industry to deliver value-added services to guests on a sustainable basis.
"Our guests need to feel that we want them here,” James said. “Visitors need to feel welcomed, and the needs of each guest must be respected individually if they are to give our destination a good report. And I hasten to add that our guests do not expect to be harassed or want to experience angry situations and personal abuse."
Source: http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4df19efdcfabf2e93c58266d7&id=29e75c6d0b&e=b23507c34c
Oct 11 A record 785,000 cruise passengers for St. Kitts in the 2013/2014 season
St. Kitts' 2013/2014 cruise ship season is going to be exciting with an estimated 785,000 passengers expected.
"What's exciting about this coming season is that we have 183 ship days. In other words, in a calendar year for the first time in our history we have passed about 130 in terms of ship days. We have gone up significantly by the number of ship days and that means that over the course of 365 days on average, every other day there will be a ship," said Minister of Tourism, Sen. the Hon. Richard "Ricky" Skerritt.
Describing the upcoming season as "phenomenal for a small island like St. Kitts," Minister Skerritt noted that during the Winter Season, there will be 103 days when there will be one ship.
"There will be 49 days when there will be two ships, that's also the largest number of days when we will have two ships in our history. There will be 22 days when we will have three ships in port, which means 2 at Port Zante and one at the Cargo Pier. There will be 6 days when we will have 4 ships and for the first time in our history, we are going to have 3 days when we are going to have 5 ships," said Skerritt.
He said even the conservative figure of 750,000 cruise passengers during the 2013/2014 Winter Season places St. Kitts "in the big league."
"Last year we were at about just 600,000, so it's a massive increase this year. Two years ago we were able to bring the Allure of the Seas which is called an Oasis-class ship as a test case and that has proven to the world, the capacity of our pier," said Minister Skerritt.
He said St. Kitts is also having more cruise ship business in the summer and that cannot be understated.
"It only began back in 2008, when for the very first time in the nation's entire cruise ship history which goes back to the early 90's, that we began to have scheduled summer calls. We never had any calls in the summer before that. Most people had to pack up their businesses by the end of April and hope for the best next year which was around October-November when the new Season starts," said Skerritt.
"That was also a part of our strategy to go out and do everything we can to bring business in the summer. That business has been steady in terms of having at least one ship. Then we went up to two and then we came back down to one last season that also took us down enormously. We have gone back up to two this summer season and next season (2014/2015) we are going to be doing even better," he disclosed.
He said there is growing justification for the construction of a second pier at Port Zante and disclosed that the Ministry of Tourism and the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) are actively in the process and very close to starting its construction.
Source: http://www.cuopm.com/newsitem_new.asp?articlenumber=3900&post200803=true
May 21 MOU Signed For Construction Of New $US 31 Million Cruise Pier
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US-based construction firm Jay Cashman Inc to construct a second cruise pier at Port Zante valued at US$31 million. Jay Cashman Inc. will invest the total cost of the project with no input from SCASPA. Both entities will share the revenue from this development for 30 years while SCASPA manages the facility. After 30 years, the full ownership the pier will be transferred to SCASPA. CEO of SCASPA, Jonathan Bass, speaking at a press conference Friday at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort for the signing of the MOU, said the project will be carried out in a public private sector joint venture arrangement. The second pier will be able to berth Oasis Class Vessels next to each other. Construction is expected to start in September this year and end on November 2014. "SCASPA will continue to operate the cruise facility; however both parties will work collaboratively to jointly market the destination to cruise lines," disclosed Mr. Bass. "The signing of this MOU is indeed a timely response to the challenges that SCASPA is facing with respect to berthing facilities. The unprecedented growth in the cruise tourism sub-sector that St. Kitts has experienced over the past six years has placed tremendous pressure on our berthing infrastructure particularly on those days when more than three large vessels request berthing," the SCASPA CEO added.
CRUISE TOURISM PROGRESS
David Vigiano, Vice President of Business Development of Jay Cashman Inc. said St. Kitts and Nevis was chosen because of the progress the country has made in cruise tourism over the years. "We look at a lot of different projects and a lot of different islands and I think what has really impressed me about St. Kitts is number one: it's growth that's happened over the last five or six years, which is not an accident by the way. It's due to the hard work of both the public sector," he said.
Mr. Vigiano explained some details of the construction. "The specific location we finalize when engineering is complete but largely it's going to be just to the west of the current pier at a 45-degree angle. As we go through the following months we're going to be undertaking a lot of engineering for the new pier as well as consulting with all of the major cruise lines on the ships' requirements to ensure that they can berth safely at the pier."
PARTNERSHIP
Meanwhile, Jay Cashman Chairman of the Board of Jay Cashman INC, spoke about his company's experience in public private partnership projects around the world and the resolve to pursue this initiative in St. Kitts and Nevis. "We have been contractors for 40 years and built many piers and many different structures and tunnels and dredging and so forth and the last 10 years there have been a very popular model. Basically contractors come and invest into the projects - they not only build them, they invest in them," Cashman explained. "The contractors who are also investing in the project will have a greater eye towards quality; he's not only going to be building it (the pier) and turning it over to an owner but he's building it knowing that he has to maintain it and be there for thirty years. The success of St. Kitts will also be my success. So we have a partnership where everybody needs to work together in order to create a product that's going to drive the economy here in Tourism for St. Kitts," he added. Minister of Tourism and International Transport Richard Skerritt lauded the public private partnership between SCASPA and Jay Cashman Inc, and disclosed that the project will involve the enhancement of the ferry terminal and the Amino Craft Market. "One of which is to completely redo the Amina Craft Market. We have to give all retailers the best possible opportunity and all service providers, the best possible opportunity to serve the needs of their customers."
The minister also noted that whole transportation system will also be looked at to better accommodate the presold tours and VIP customers. "We expanded the taxi cadre from about 130 taxi operators six years ago to over 400 taxi operators now. We have still over 200 persons on a waiting list. Every day we get people wanting to be taxi operators and we've had to freeze the process over the last year," he disclosed. "This project and the prospects for the next season and beyond make it possible to now for us to unfreeze that process and I would say categorically that sometime by the end of third quarter in this year, you will see that process being unfrozen."
The minister assured that through the marketing efforts of both the investors and SCASPA and the second pier accommodating bigger cruise vessels, the island will be able to attract more cruise ships and passengers.
Source: http://www.winnfm.com/news/local/4166-mou-signed-for-construction-of-new-us-31-million-new-cruise-pier
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