Tom Stieghorst
If everything is business as usual for cruising in the Caribbean after the hurricanes of September, what are we to make of all the television news accounts of shortages, deprivation, misery and property destruction?
That was one of the questions posed to Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. president and COO Adam Goldstein during a conference call to advertise that the Caribbean is "open for business."
Goldstein could have followed the current Washington trend and blamed the messenger, but he didn't, and I think his answer was a good one and useful to travel agents who may face the same kind of skepticism from clients.
There's a distinction to be drawn, Goldstein said, between the experience of residents in a port like San Juan and that of tourists who might be arriving to board a cruise ship bound for islands that were largely unaffected by the storms.
"If you are a resident it's a difficult existence if you don't have electricity," Goldstein said. "That's a different situation, for the most part, than what we are looking at in terms of our ability to contribute to their economic recovery.
"When you drive around the old town of San Juan, it looks completely fine," he said. The port's Pan American terminals 1 and 2 clearly had some impact, he said, "but we're already using them to turn Adventure of the Seas around.
"I think it's really important to make the distinction between the long road Puerto Rico has ahead of it to fully recover from the impact of these storms, and what we need to do to deliver a guest-satisfying experience that contributes to the economic recovery of the island."
Goldstein said that at this point most of the passengers on the Adventure of the Seas are either island residents, or they are flying in to meet the ship on the day of departure, obviating the need to stay in a hotel. He acknowledged that excursions on San Juan port calls are going to stay a little closer to the core of the city in the short term and not venture, for example, to the El Yunque rain forest, which had significant damage to its trees and roads.
Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald, a New Orleans native who was also on the call, emphasized the gradual nature of the comeback from a natural disaster. "New Orleans is still recovering from Katrina, and that was 10 years ago," he said.
"The most positive thing we can all do is to help support [hurricane vicitms] with the economic multiplier effect, by taking advantage of the wonderful things that are fully operational and available for people to still enjoy."
Correction: El Yunque rain forest is located in Puerto Rico; an incorrect spelling appeared in an earlier version of this article.