Grenada Today - The National Newspaper of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique

Min. Brenda Hood Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Brenda Hood has disclosed that the ministry is projecting a 44 percent increase in the number of cruise passengers arriving on the island for the winter 2004 season.

After Hurricane Ivan hit the island in September, the Cruise Industry was one of the sectors that was badly affected. Minister Hood indicated that passenger projections for this season (October 2004 to April 2005) are 287,758, which reflects a 44 percent increase over the last winter season when 199,606 passengers visited the Spice Isle.

The increase occurred despite the passage of Ivan on September 7 which resulted in no cruise ships arriving in Grenada in September and only one call in October. Hood recalled that the first cruise ship call came to Grenada after Ivan took place on November 10 and since then the liners "have been coming just about every day."
"There haven't been many cancellations from the cruise lines and the responses they have been getting from persons on the ships have been very positive", she added.

According to the Tourism Minister the passengers of the ships have been complimenting the people and Government of Grenada for the work they are doing in the industry. Hood admitted that there is still a long way to go in the cruise industry, and what the island would like to see in another year or two is improvements in the attraction sites for visitors.

"We at the Ministry of Tourism and the Board of Tourism will be working aggressively toward the improvement of these sites", she said. Many of the attractions sites were damaged like those in Grand Etang and Annandale by the Hurricane and the ministry was forced to temporarily close some of them to visitors.

It was announced that the ministry is approaching various funding agencies to assist in the improvement of the island's attraction sites. According to Minister Hood, the Ministry has realised the importance of the sector and decided to set up a permanent Cruise Task Force to meet twice a month to examine the industry.

In addition, the unit will make frequent inspection of attractions sites and make recommendations on ways to improve the sector. Noting that many of the hotels were damaged during Hurricane Ivan, Minister Hood said that only about 40 per cent of rooms were available for stay-over visitors.

She pointed out that about 65 percent of the room stock are now available and that every month new hotel rooms are coming back on stream. She said the affected hotels are working aggressively to improve on their room stock, and most of them will be ready by August.

The minister was also confident that the quality of the hotels will improve, because many of the hoteliers have taken steps to improve their ratings. Minister Hood announced that Grenada will be attending the Florida Trade Show in March in order to woo new cruise ships to the island for the next cruise ship season.