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The president of the Antigua & Barbuda Cruise Tourism Association

The president of the Antigua & Barbuda Cruise Tourism Association (ABCTA) has said that enhancing the island’s tourist attractions is key, notwithstanding the fact that the island has withstood the test of time in the cruise tourism sector fairly well.

According to the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), the island holds the number one position in the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) for the total amount of expenditure from cruise ship passengers and the number of passenger arrivals; but Dundas said improving the island’s attractions would help to increase tourist spending.

According to the ABCTA representative, the association has been working with the National Parks Authority, the Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority (ABTA), and the Ministry of Culture, among others, to develop more programmes.

Betty’s Hope has already been identified as an area which needs upgrading, as the cruise lines have dubbed the area a “gold mine,” for tourists, he said.

Speaking about Heritage Quay, the cruise association president said: “We need to do a bit more with the bandstand. We need to enhance it. It looks tired. Those are some of the things we have to become creative for in terms of getting people off the ships, getting them attracted to our port and really making it work.”

However, he added, the possibility of making the port unique to attract more tourists is easier said than done, because “everybody is selling the same thing.

“Even though they try to market the same items and they try to put it in a different country’s name … it is essentially the same product,” Dundas said.

According to the FCCA report, about US $48.3 million was spent by passengers in Antigua & Barbuda during the period November 2008 to April 2009.  This is up from the previous report in 2006, where the recorded figure was roughly US $41 million.

The ABCTA president cautioned that more passengers do not necessarily mean more spending, as other Caribbean countries have reported that arrivals are up, but spending is down.

To increase visitor spending, the association has been negotiating for the country to be higher up in the cruise lines’ itineraries, the ABCTA president said.  When a country is the number one port of call, he noted, it increases the amount spent by the visitors.

As for prospective markets, the ABCTA has been targeting young people, he said.

Dundas said the group is also planning to collaborate with environmental groups to ensure that the surroundings are up to par for the tourists.


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