On the north coast of Jamaica between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, the port of Falmouth was redone by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and the Jamaican government in 2011 as a stop for the then-new Oasis class ships. Recent reports in the Jamaican press had Royal Caribbean pulling out of Falmouth, with visitor harassment cited as an issue, but Royal Caribbean said it was merely reducing its capacity temporarily. Senior editor Tom Stieghorst talked with Jamaican minister of tourism Edmund Bartlett about the island's largest cruise port.
Q: A number of stories have said Royal Caribbean is leaving Falmouth. Can you set the record straight?
Edmund Bartlett
A: What is happening is that cruise lines routinely make adjustments to their itineraries. They bring different size ships depending on demand, the guest-service experience and so on. Two new ports have come on their itineraries; I think it is Cozumel and Roatan [Honduras]. They were off, now they're back, part of a four-stop itinerary in the Western Caribbean. We are improving Falmouth with a project scheduled to [be completed] at the end of 2018. So the Falmouth that we really want to have, with the Georgian town and a number of new attractions and so on, we will have by 2018. In addition, there's talk of the distance between Cozumel and Montego Bay on a straight run. And if the port in the Cayman Islands could expand to create a stop for those large ships, it would make that itinerary better, with four stops instead of three.
Q: We've also heard that a Celebrity Cruises ship is not coming to Falmouth. Why not?
A: In the case of the Celebrity, we weren't able to find berth space for them because I think they may have made a late application, and that space was given to Princess Cruises. So Princess will come instead of Celebrity for that period. What we're doing is to ensure there will be a minimum volume coming to Falmouth from those ships.
Q: From time to time in the past six or seven years, you've expressed concerns about harassment of cruise passengers by vendors and taxi operators in Falmouth. What's the situation now?
A: That situation is a work in progress. We're trying to put in place a better organization of traffic management in the area, and also the way passengers are taken from ship to ship, and the way the transport facilities themselves are structured and organized so as to eliminate the possibility of any direct solicitation of passengers as they leave the port. That's part of the program we have to reduce incidents of badgering and what I call enthusiastic solicitation. We are removing the possibility of them being in the area around the port. And we're creating something called the Artisan Village, which is going to provide very adequate and well-appointed merchandising space for every kind of craft vendor. We've been working very, very assiduously at that. We expect to start construction sometime this year and hopefully we will have it ready by the end of 2018.
Q: What else is happening in Falmouth?
A: The street straightening and the facading for the look and feel of the Georgian town are also going apace, so we will have Falmouth in really good shape in time for the next [itinerary] rotation, which will be in 2020.
Q: Is that all?
A: I want to have a meeting with [RCCL president] Adam Goldstein about the Labadee [Haiti] port, which is owned by RCCL, to be refurbished and reconditioned in time for that rotation, so we could have four stops, outside of the [other] four stops that would include Roatan and two stops in Mexico.
Q: So Falmouth is fine?
A: There's no need for panic. There was an overreaction on the part of the media in general. This year, we will have 669,000 passenger visits on 164 ship calls in Falmouth. Next year we will be down to 554,000 persons. Why is this happening? The other two major ports we have are booming. Ocho Rios is up by 70%, and Montego Bay by 37%. The destination [of Jamaica] will, in fact, be up by 3% to 5% overall. Jamaica will have many more visitors than last year and the year before.