The number of cruise ship tourists visiting Trinidad and Tobago increased by 25% during the last cruise ship season, according to figures from the T&T Tourism Ministry. Visitor numbers jumped by more than 10,000 to 58,000 during the 2018/2019 season, which runs from November to April. T&T recorded around 47,000 visitors the previous season.
Tourism minister Randall Mitchell said that cruise ship arrival numbers have been steadily increasing over the past three seasons. He expects even bigger numbers in the coming years, with the upgrading of popular hotspots such as the Maracas Beach facility.
Six cruise ships docked in Port of Spain during the carnival season. In December, four ships came calling. The dockside adjacent to Hyatt Regency saw more traffic than at any other time in its history
Trinidad and Tobago’s cruise ship visitor figures lag well behind those of other Caribbean destinations such an Antigua, St Maarten and Grenada, but T&T’s is one of the biggest year-on-year-growth in arrivals.
Last year, 2018, T&T received 357,000 visitors, a drop of 20,000 from the previous year. The increased cruise ship numbers will be seen a great news amid the general fall in the numbers. Ndearly half of the visitors to these shores, almost 164,861, came from the United States. Canada was the second biggest market with 47,066.
