St Kitts and Nevis all set to begin homeporting operations with P&O cruises

St Kitts and Nevis: St Kitts has officially secured homeporting operations with P&O Cruises under the Carnival Corporation brand. This step will enhance the position of the destination, making it an attractive country for cruise tourism.

The disclosure has come from Minister of Tourism, Marsha T. Henderson who hailed the decision as "repositioning the destination from a port of call to a strategic embarkation and disembarkation hub."

"The fly-cruise model will drive tangible economic benefits, with passengers flying in, staying overnight, dining locally, booking tours, and shopping across Basseterre," as per  Minister Henderson.

In order to welcome homeporting, the government of St Kitts and Nevis is also planning to upgrade Port Zante. The features will include a new international-standard cruise terminal, aiming to enhance and strengthen the country's role within the Caribbean cruise network.

In October and November, three Carnival ships including Carnival Dream, Carnival Venezia and Carnival Pride visited St. Kitts' Port Zante with over 9,500 passengers. A homeport is where a cruise itinerary begins (and ends) and where passengers can embark on a cruise ship for the first time.

As homeporting in the Caribbean has increased, the number of passengers flying into and out of destinations has also risen. This often brings benefits such as passengers staying in hotel accommodation during pre- and post-cruise extension visits.

Other effects of homeporting include the shipping in of container loads of provisions and increased revenue from additional local services such as garbage disposal, bunker supplies, fresh water provisioning and sludge removal.

Homeporting offers a number of benefits to a destination including increased visitor numbers for both cruise- and land-based vacations and added airlift through charter flights.

In addition, it enables berths to be used during non-peak port days and non-traditional services to be used by port-of-call vessels, such as provisioning, luggage handling, and bunkering services. Despite the seemingly small number of total calls to Barbados and Montego Bay in Jamaica, the impact is significant.