Dear Editor,
St. Maarten is expected to receive less cruise passengers in 2016, but the country is not the only one; our competitor St. Thomas is facing the same fate. St. Thomas is forecast to receive 1.65 million cruise passengers for the fiscal year 2017, and for 2016 the port authority expects to receive approximately 1.75 million. In 2014, the destination received 2,083 million.
St. Thomas’ port authority says the decline is the result of ships being taken out of service and put in dry dock for repairs; others re-routed to other destinations around the world. The aforementioned also applies for cruise destination St. Maarten, however, representatives from the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) met in May with the permanent parliamentary committee for Tourism and Economic Affairs, and informed Members of Parliament, that the destination needed to do something as it had reached the cross-roads and needed to re-invent itself in order to see further growth over the mid to long-term.
The cruise industry, in the meantime, continues to grow and will reach 315 ships in 2016, and generate approximately US $35.5 billion in revenues world-wide this year, up from $33.2 billion last year.
The North American market will represent approximately 56 per cent of the global industry in terms of where passengers come from; Europe 27 per cent, and the Asia/Pacific region 17 per cent. The latter market is growing while the other two source markets have shown declines. Cruise lines will move their vessels to regions where growth is taking place, and that is one of the reasons several destinations in the Caribbean are seeing a decline in their cruise numbers for 2016 and 2017.
Cruise lines are ordering new cruise vessels, which reached a historic high in value of $42 billion for 59-ocean going vessels, according to Seatrade. These orders are up to 2024. This demonstrates that the cruise industry is continuing to grow in other areas of the world.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) last month announced the cruise industry has surpassed 2015 ocean cruise passenger projections and has increased passenger expectations for 2016. This is a sign, according to CLIA, that the industry is stronger than ever.
CLIA says a total of 23.2 million passengers were on ocean cruises globally in 2015, up from a projection of 23 million, and a four-per cent increase over 2014. CLIA has modified 2016 expectations and is now predicting 24.2 million travellers will set sail on ocean cruises around the world.
CLIA adds that much of the industry’s growth can be attributed to emerging regions of the world. In 2015, Asia experienced the most growth year-over-year in ocean cruise passengers with another impressive 24 per cent increase.
“When looking at the travel industry, cruise travel has astonishing long-term growth potential since it represents only two per cent of the total leisure travel market, has the highest satisfaction rates among global travellers and is growing in popularity. In fact, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, in the decade between 2004 and 2014, global cruise vacations have grown faster in popularity than land-based vacations by a 20-per-cent margin,” CLIA says.
The decline in our country’s cruise numbers for 2016 is just a bump along the road of cruise growth. At the same time, it is an opportunity to review and evaluate, enhance our product and introduce new services, tours and products that gives us an edge over the other competitors. It’s all about re-inventing our cruise product to meet the demands of the customers–cruise passengers, by giving them that experience that they don’t find anywhere else.
Roddy Heyliger
