Jamaica cruise arrivals up 10 percent this year
Jamaica posted a 10% jump in cruise traffic during January-September 2014, in part due to cruise ship diversions from other storm ravaged islands in the Caribbean.
"We got an additional 12,000 passengers based on the diversion from other Caribbean islands. We missed the storms this time, but others did not and it resulted in four additional calls that we didn’t anticipate," said William Tatham, head of cruises at the Port Authority of Jamaica.
Both Disney and MSC came to Jamaica in summer, which did not happen last year," he added.
MSC Cruise Line has made intermittent calls in Jamaica for a decade but this year is the first time during the summer.
Disney started serving the island for the first time in October.
The increase was bolstered by a 20% jump in arrivals from May to September, mostly driven by more business through Falmouth Cruise Pier.
Of the other Jamaican ports, Ochi Rios showed a slight increase and Montego Bay arrival numbers remained flat.
Tatham said there is a chance of surpassing the record for the number of arrivals by the end of 2014.
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