Two cruise lines choose Jamaica as base

The Norwegian Cruise Line that donated US$1 million to Jamaica's COVID-19 recovery effort will be home-porting one of its vessels in Montego Bay, St James.

Home-porting is when a ship uses a port as its home regardless of its port of registry. When vessels are home ported in Jamaica, passengers will have to begin or end a cruise here, which means that the ground transportation and tour markets could see benefits.

"The importance of home-porting is that it offers opportunities for supplies, it enables jobs, it provides purchases of not just fuel but also water, and, critical to it all, it also provides accommodation for stopover visitors who come into the island," Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett said.

The minister said that US$1 million being donated will go towards "providing well-needed assistance in building out the health infrastructure needed to facilitate the return of cruise tourism in a safe and seamless manner".

In addition to Norwegian Cruise Line, which will be 'home-porting' in Jamaica, Bartlett said that Viking Cruises will be doing the same.

"They are scheduled to start home-porting also in August from Montego Bay ... so they will start in Montego Bay, they will go to Falmouth, then to Ocho Rios, then to Port Antonio and then to Port Royal and then back to Montego Bay for the next round," Bartlett said.

Professor Peter Figueroa, head of the Caribbean Immunisation Technical Advisory Group, says he believes the cruisers will post minimal threat to Jamaicans.

Taking definite precautions

"I imagine that they are going to be taking definite precautions so everybody will come on vaccinated. No one wants a situation where there is an outbreak of COVID-19, so the relevant authorities will aim to ensure that anyone who comes on there is fully vaccinated," Figueroa said.

Jamaica has not welcomed a single cruise ship visitor since COVID-19 arrived on the country's shores just over a year ago. Bartlett said that the reopening of the cruise industry is likely to take place by June, and Jamaica is anticipating 570,000 cruise ship visitors this year.

Figueroa said that the resumption of cruise travel is not likely to cause a public health problem for Jamaica if the established protocols are followed.

"If they take all the requirements where persons are vaccinated and tested where necessary then I think cruising could be resumed, and it would not be a problem. I think the bigger problem will be on our side because we probably would not have got enough vaccines to give out sufficient vaccinations of the population, so we would still be seeing COVID in Jamaica," he said.