BARBADOS IS PROJECTING a 12 per cent increase in fly-cruise business from the European market for the 2015/2015 cruise tourism season.
Executives of Foster & Ince Cruise Services and international tour operators estimate that over 100 000 visitors will fly into the island to join cruise ships over the next six months.
This is up from around 80 000 passengers who flew in and out of the island last season on charters after taking Caribbean cruises from Barbados.
“Based on our bookings, we expect around 400 wide-bodied aircraft to touch down at the Grantley Adams International Airport during the season, moving cruise passengers in and out of the island between Ocotber [2015] and April [2016],” said Martin Ince, Foster & Ince chief executive officer.
He was speaking as Royal Caribbean megaship Anthem Of The Seas arrived in Barbaods with 4 231 passengers and 1 624 crew aboard.
The fly-cruise programme, which sees mainly European visitors flying to Barbados to join cruise ships at the Bridgetown Port, has been growing significantly over the past four years mainly as a result of bigger ships home porting on the island and the sign off of strategic business partnerships.
This segment of the business has also been beneficial to several Barbadian hotels as fly-cruisers tend to book hotel stays before or after going on Caribbean cruises.
Big playes in the global travel business – such as Thomson Tours, TUI, Thomas Cook, Air Berlin, and Condor – will again be operating charters to Barbados, bringing passengers from mainly across the United Kingdom and Germany.
Foster & Ince, based on contracts with international tour operators, manages the transport of the majority of these cruisers, and their luggage, and also provides a range of dockside services through its subsidiary Platinum Port agency.
The fly-cruise programme is a critical part of the cruise tourism business in Barbados. Fifteen new ships are expected to call at the Bridgetown Port during the current season and and 800 000 cruise passengers are expected to visit Barbados over the next year.
