{"id":23982,"date":"2019-02-06T19:45:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T23:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=23982"},"modified":"2019-02-06T19:45:38","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T23:45:38","slug":"officials-anticipate-another-good-year-for-cruise-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/officials-anticipate-another-good-year-for-cruise-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials Anticipate Another Good Year For Cruise Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With the 2018 cruise figures\nalready surpassing those of the year prior with a recorded 792,873 visitors,\nTourism officials are buoyant regarding the prospects for 2019 and beyond.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During his budget contribution\nlast week, the Hon. Minister of Tourism and Investment cited that based at an\naverage spend per passenger of US$79, a total of US$62,636,967 was injected\ninto the economy in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Fernandez attributes the\nremarkable growth in the Cruise tourism sector in 2018 to the foresight of the\nMinistry of Tourism and the Government to invest US$30 million to upgrade the\nport of St. John\u2019s in 2016.<\/p>

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Further growth is forecast in the\nnearby future as the country\u2019s cruise ship facilities are now being positioned\nfor upgrades and expansion. <\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Government of Antigua and\nBarbuda has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Global Ports Holding\n(GPH) to negotiate a long-term concession for cruise port operations in the\ncountry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tourism Minister noted that, \u201cThe\nagreement will also see the construction of a number of new retail outlets in\nthe project area\u2026and GPH will also be investing in the material upgrade of the\nSt. John\u2019s Port including the construction of a new pier that will allow the\nport to handle Oasis-class ships.\u201d<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Global Port Holding agreement\nis a game changer for the cruise industry and will ensure an exponential\nincrease in the islands\u2019 cruise passenger numbers to well past one million\nwithin the next 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruise passenger spend is also\nlikely to increase because of the GPH agreement. The company has agreed to\nsupport local small business operators through the establishment of the YES\nfoundation.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Local business owners and\/or\naspiring business owners with new and innovative tourism product ideas will be\nable to access soft loans at competitive interest rates through this foundation\nto bring their ideas to fruition.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With exciting and enticing new\nproducts added to the Antiguan and Barbudan tourism offerings, visitors will be\nstimulated to spend more during their stay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the 2018 cruise figures already surpassing those of the year prior with a recorded 792,873 visitors, Tourism officials are buoyant regarding the prospects for 2019 and beyond. During his budget contribution last week, the Hon. Minister of Tourism and Investment cited that based at an average spend per passenger of US$79, a total of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOfficials Anticipate Another Good Year For Cruise Sector - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/officials-anticipate-another-good-year-for-cruise-sector\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Officials Anticipate Another Good Year For Cruise Sector\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the 2018 cruise figures already surpassing those of the year prior with a recorded 792,873 visitors, Tourism officials are buoyant regarding the prospects for 2019 and beyond. During his budget contribution last week, the Hon. 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