BUSINESS MONDAY - Work together

BARBADOS has been told that there must be greater collaboration among key players in the cruise passenger industry in order for that sector to attain its goals.

That suggestion has come from Claudine Pohl, Training and International Business Development Manager at Aquila, an entity engaged in training.

She told several participants at a seminar at the Radisson Aquatic Resort, that the cooperation is necessary for many reasons – one of them being the fact that more and more cruise destinations are looking for a piece of the cruise ship passenger pie.

She said that the choice is up to stakeholders, who are the key players in the industry, to ensure success takes place.

“We are the ones who move things in the industry: marketing organisations, tourism departments, tour operators, ports (of call).

“Everyone needs to work together in order to achieve the goals of the industry,” she stressed.

Ms. Pohl added that the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) is also a stakeholder in that it has 18 member cruise lines operating more than 100 vessels in the Caribbean, Florida and Latin American waters.

The FCCA helps in the communications with governments, tour operators, and other private and public sectors.

She noted that Barbados is a cruise platinum member, as is the case with some tour operators. “What that does is to provide more access to cruise lines and cruise executives who make the key decisions to come to Barbados.”

She said further that stakeholders have to make sure that they are providing to the cruise lines an appropriate level of tours being sold. According to her, cruise lines like to know that for each ship capacity is at least 45 per cent to 50 per cent. They love it to be around 50 per cent, although most of the time they are around 40 per cent to 45 per cent, she revealed.

It is also important to note that you are supporting the cruise line models to ensure that tours are being sold directly with operators from the lines.

“Failure in this area means the cruise lines can pick up their ships and deploy them in other locations where the opportunity exists for them to make more money,” Pohl said, stating that she has seen it happen before.

The event was organised by the Barbados Tourism Product Authority.