Chief executive officer of Carvalho’s Agencies Charles Carvalho says so far, destination T&T has had a very lucrative cruise season.
He said when the season first began in October to now, thousands of visitors have arrived.
According to Carvalho to date, the total number of passengers landed onshore is 139,640 along with 51,988 crew members.
These visits, he said, have also brought in much need revenue from the country with visitor spend ranging from taxi fares to tourists buying local craft items which in turn, critically supports small businesses.
“At the craft market at the port visitors do spend quite a bit of money,” Carvalho added.
Carvalho, who works closely with the Ministry of Tourism and is responsible for organising cruise liners to dock at the various ports at both Trinidad and Tobago, shared further insights about the progress of the cruise season which ends on April 19, 2023.
“When we had COVID which was for about two and a half years, it was very rough for us so now these visits made up a lot of ground,” Carvalho said.
On Saturday, Trinidad welcomed the Emerald Princess on her maiden journey to the port of Port-of-Spain.
A post by the Tourism Ministry said visitors were treated to a performance by the Biraha Raja Chowtal Group, as facilitated by Tourism Trinidad in celebration of Phagwa to welcome visitors.
Regarding upcoming visits before the season closes, Carvalho said these include the Rhapsody of the Seas calling until April 18.
Carvalho said to date 79 ships have visited both islands, with these vessels coming mainly from the United States and Barbados, some also from Guadeloupe.
Next year’s season, he said, looks even brighter as there are 118 calls planned between T&T.
Carvalho also detailed some of the expected visits from the various liners.
“We have quite a number of Princess ships coming. We have the Celebrity in Tobago. I speak of T&T as one destination because we handle three ports within the country; Port-of-Spain, Charlotteville and Scarbrough.
“We also have some Holland America ships coming. We will also have some Seaborne ships coming which will not be many but they usually go to Tobago,” Carvalho added.