By
Rebecca Gibson |
St. Kitts Tourism Authority plans to expand its partnership with Carnival Corporation after hosting a meeting with several of its top executives at the end of its record 2017-2018 cruise season.
This October, Prime Minister of St. Kitts & Nevis Timothy Harris and Minister of Tourism Lindsay Grant hosted a meeting with several key executives at Carnival. They included Arnold Donald, president and CEO; Giora Israel, senior vice president of Global Port and Destination Development; Stefano Borzone, vice president of Global Port and Destination Development; David Candib, vice president of Port and Destination Development Operations; Karl Austin, vice president of Marine; and Marie McKenzie, vice president of Global Ports and Caribbean Government Relations. Attendees from St. Kitts included Josephine Huggins, cabinet secretary; Nicholas Menon, chairman of the directors’ board at St. Kitts Tourism Authority; Melnecia Marshall, product development manager at the St. Kitts Tourism Authority.
During the meeting, the delegates discussed the fact that St. Kitts hit a historic high when it celebrated its one millionth cruise passenger arrival this July, which enabled it to gain the same marquee port status as larger Caribbean islands.
“St. Kitts is a beautiful island with warm welcoming people and many unique attractions for our guests,” said Donald. “It is a significant milestone for St. Kitts to reach one million guests as part of another record-setting cruise season.”
Delegates from St. Kitts also updated the Carnival executives on the progress of a project to build a second cruise pier at Port Zante, as well as other public infrastructure developments, product enhancement plans, new standards for the transportation sector and growth strategies. In addition, the team talked about new itineraries that would enable cruise ships in the Carnival Corporation fleet to call at St. Kitts.
“It is a testament to the excellent relationship between Carnival and the St. Kitts Ministry of Tourism together with the St. Kitts Tourism Authority that its highest-level executives have taken the time out of their busy schedules to meet with us here on island,” said Grant. “With the Carnival Fascination being the only vessel to make year-round calls to St. Kitts, our partnership with Carnival is one of the key drivers behind our exceeding the million cruise passenger arrivals mark in the 2017-2018 season. We are grateful for Carnival’s contributions to the development of our cruise sector and we will continue working together closely moving forward.”