Plans are being developed for a new purpose-built cruise facility at the Bridgetown Port and it could involve investment from major cruise lines.
Barbados Port Inc. chief executive officer David Jean-Marie, responding to a question from Government backbencher Dr William Duguid, reported yesterday that “we have been examining few options with respect to building out of cruise facilities”.
“In terms of the existing facilities, we’ve enhanced the home port terminal. We have a luxury section there for home porting passengers. We continue to work on improving the existing terminal and it actually works.
“But we want to move towards separating cargo from cruise and we are indeed having a discussion with . . . the major cruise lines – MSC, Royal Caribbean, [and] Carnival – to see how they can participate as investors in the buildout of a purpose-built facility to the south of the existing terminal,” he said during the Appropriation Bill, 2026 debate.
Jean-Marie added that “the current configuration that we are looking at is reclamation of five acres of land, one pier initially, and a terminal”. “So we continue to have those conversations with the cruise lines and other entities that have expressed an interest to see how we can accelerate coming up with a plan as quickly as possible
to be able to build out facilities for the cruise passengers,” he said.
Minister of Tourism and International Transport Ian Gooding-Edghill also noted that “Barbados continues to grow and build out its cruise infrastructure . . . as part of the Bridgetown Port expansion.
“Berth 6 has been completed. We are currently receiving cargo vessels there and also some cruise ship vessels,” he said.
“We’ve always been plagued with the problem, prior to Berth 6, in Barbados, where there’s always competition for cruise ships and cargo ships to come in to dock and to obviously utilise the berthing space.
“Of course, as we continue to build out our cruise facilities, attention will have to be given now to the expansion of a . . . pier or two at the Bridgetown Port. This is absolutely necessary based on the demand that we are seeing and . . . the number of requests that we are getting from the cruise operators.” (SC)
