MICHAEL BELNAVIS
JAMAICA MUST act quickly and position itself to take full advantage of an exploding international cruise shipping boom and changing holiday trends - or literally miss the boat, the president of the Ocho Rios Cruise Shipping Council, Michael Belnavis, warns.
The Ocho Rios businessman said that cruise shipping berths in Montego Bay and Ocho Rios were to be reconfigured and expanded this year to cope with the current strain of the island literally turning away cruise ships, because of too few, and too inadequate, berths.
Mr. Belnavis pointed out that as mega liners transformed into even bigger, ultra mega liners, and the world population's taste for sea cruises grew stronger, the island should be poised to fully access what he described as "this sweeping transition."
He disclosed that international studies indicated that the global cruise shipping marketplace would grow by 40 per cent over the next five years - with the Caribbean accounting for a whopping percentage of that tally.
Mr. Belnavis - who recently returned from week-long discussions in Miami with key cruise line executives - saw this as "significant," against the normal tourism pattern of holidaying at world resorts.
Another top priority, as Mr. Belnavis sees it, is for Jamaica to take a "close and critical look" at what the island offers cruise ship passengers - both to entice thousands more passengers to disembark, and more ships to drop anchor for longer, even overnight, stops.
Mr. Belnavis mentioned casino gambling as a good lure.
Taken from The Daily Gleaner, Wednesday January 11, 2006
