Antigua experiences a record-breaking day, welcoming over 15,000 cruise passengers throughout six cruise ships. The historic occasion marked a major milestone for the port and the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, showcasing the realm’s rising reputation amongst cruise operators and company.
This comes amidst a push from the native authorities to draw extra cruise ships and company, with varied initiatives being rolled out, amongst them the brand new Oasis-class cruise berth and extra. The Caribbean islands are nicely underway to expertise the busiest cruise 12 months up to now.
Document-Breaking Numbers For Antigua & Barbuda
Cruise ships from Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises, AIDA, Sea Dream, and Royal Caribbean Worldwide introduced in 15,808 company on March 12, setting a brand new report for the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
The port of St. John’s turned a busy hive of exercise as Enchanted Princess, Costa Serena, Costa Pacifica, Aida Perla, and Explorer of the Seas docked within the capital. In the meantime, Sea Dream II graced the waters of Falmouth Harbour in Barbuda. The mixed arrival of those vessels pushed the passenger depend to an all-time excessive, surpassing any earlier data.
Cynthia Jacobs Browne, Monetary Controller and Officer-In-Cost at Antigua Cruise Port: “With these unbelievable passenger numbers, we’re on our strategy to reaching one other record-breaking purpose – welcoming over 800,000 passengers to Antigua & Barbuda by December 2024.
Jacobs Browne acknowledged the mixed effort it took from all layers of society to drag off the large feat of accommodating the huge quantity of individuals whereas with the ability to preserve the Caribbean vibe that Antigua is thought for.
“We should thank our port and cruise group, together with the port authority, harbour pilots, stevedores, tenants, taxi drivers, tour operators, tourism companions, and the hardworking Antigua Cruise Port crew for making this present day stream so seamlessly.”
“We’re enormously proud to work with all our collaborators on such a historic achievement and ahead to breaking extra data quickly!” Jacobs Browne mentioned.
Extra Busy Instances Coming for St. Johns
Antigua and Barbuda‘s predominant port of St. Johns’s fame as a fantastic cruise vacation spot within the Caribbean is one thing that the port has been engaged on steadily through the years, and one which the native authorities hopes to capitalize on within the coming years.
The port’s focus has shifted to welcoming extra homeport ships all year long, with the 185,000 gross tons, 5,200-passenger P&O Arvia performing 4 turnarounds this 12 months. The ultra-luxury Emerald Sakara, Royal Clipper, and SeaDream Yacht Membership ships additionally carry out common turnarounds within the port.
By the top of this cruise season, Antigua can have facilitated twenty-seven turn-around calls, together with 309 common port calls—a major improve from the earlier season.
Jacobs Browne: “Thus far, we have now obtained 299,803 company for the 12 months and count on to have welcomed over 400,000 company by the top of the season in April.”
In 2023, Antigua welcomed simply over 500,000 cruise passengers, a quantity that the port will comfortably surpass because it nonetheless expects a number of 5-6 cruise ship days. On March 26, 2024, AIDAperla, P&O Britannia, Explorer Of The Seas, Norwegian Viva, and Seven Seas Splendor will go to.
With the brand new cruise berth now open for enterprise, and potential new cruise infrastructure opening on Rat Island and at Fort James, the island will be capable of have a good time even larger success sooner or later.
