Homeporting potential

Caribbean Maritime Institute executive director Fritz Pinnock and director of academic studies Ibrahim Ajagunna explain why homeporting will be beneficial to Jamaica and Barbados

The cruise industry has grown from a local cottage industry in the US and Caribbean to a global industry spanning the seven seas. This growth has continued in 2014 with innovative, feature-rich ships, international ports of call and convenient departures from proximal embarkation cities as fundamental tenets of the new industry. While the image of cruising has not changed, the industry has shifted to a highly efficient multibillion-dollar business with the Caribbean as one of its most popular destinations. There has also been a significant shift in the clientele, the size of the ships, the multitude of available onboard services, the luxury of land-based resorts and the various destination options. Caribbean inbound cruise arrivals now account for more than half of all visitors to the region, a number that is increasing at more than twice the rate of the annual figure for land-based visitors.

There can be no denying the positive impacts cruise travel has for both passengers and the local economy of cruise destinations. The influx of ships generates millions of dollars for the Caribbean economy in terms of wages, while the money passengers spend onshore provides an additional income for local businesses and governments. As a result, cruise travel is now the largest sector of the tourism industry in the Caribbean. The dependency of many Caribbean small island states on tourism has led ports to invest in large infrastructure developments to accommodate today’s mega ships and the corresponding increase in visitor numbers.

The Caribbean aims to follow the success of a growing number of US cruise ports that have begun to host homeporting vessels. As passengers are able to drive to the ports, eliminating the need for flights, this has opened the door to some intriguing travel options. For instance, after years of playing second fiddle to the major Florida ports, New York City has grown rapidly and passengers can sail to the Bahamas in the middle of winter, or cruise to Bermuda, the Caribbean, and New England/Canada throughout the year. Seattle has also gone from a very minor cruise port to handling nearly half of the Alaska-bound cruise ships that previously sailed to nearby Vancouver. Meanwhile, ships have started to sail from Baltimore, Norfolk, Houston, San Diego, and even Bayonne, New Jersey.

Between 2000 and 2013, the ratio of homeport calls to total cruise visits in Barbados ranged from a low of 21.51% in 2004, to a high of 37.33% in 2006. These statistics are unrivalled by any other Caribbean port, including Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

As homeporting in the Caribbean has increased, the number of passengers flying into and out of destinations has also risen. This often brings benefits such as passengers staying in hotel accommodation during pre- and post-cruise extension visits. Other effects of homeporting include the shipping in of container loads of provisions and increased revenue from additional local services such as garbage disposal, bunker supplies, fresh water provisioning and sludge removal.

Homeporting offers a number of benefits to a destination including increased visitor numbers for both cruise- and land-based vacations and added airlift through charter flights. In addition, it enables berths to be used during non-peak port days and non-traditional services to be used by port-of-call vessels, such as provisioning, luggage handling, and bunkering services. Despite the seemingly small number of total calls to Barbados and Montego Bay in Jamaica, the impact is significant. While Barbados handles an average of one homeporting vessel in every four calls, Montego Bay hosts one in every six.

Following a major project to develop the infrastructure of the airports and road network, Jamaica will become a major logistics hub, which will make it more attractive for cruise lines looking to homeport vessels. When the two new highways are introduced – one from north to south and another from east to west – it will help to reduce travel time, enabling both Ocho Rios and Falmouth to increase the number of homeporting ships they handle. In addition to enhancing the profile of the two ports, this will also be a major boost for the local economy, particularly for companies operating in the hotel and tourism sector. Barbados, which is set to gain a new cruise ship terminal, will also become more attractive as a Caribbean homeport.

In essence, homeporting can act as significant harmoniser between the cruise and land-based tourism industries, and could play a greater role in economic development for both Barbados and Jamaica and other Caribbean islands.

This article appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2014 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. To read other articles, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.