08/01/2018
On December 29th , 2017, tourism officials commemorated Barbados’ record 815,000 passenger arrivals, which blew the previously set record out of the water. Documented almost 13 years ago, the previous record was 812,863 passengers.
During a ceremony at the Bridgetown Port, a commemorative plaque was presented by the Minister of Tourism and International Transport, the Honourable Richard Sealy to specially selected visitors that attended. Also attending the event were various officials from the Barbados Port Inc., the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) and the Barbados Cruise Terminal.
It was noted that despite the various challenges that Barbados experienced in the cruise industry in 2017, that the island was still able to reach this achievement and thus it demonstrated the resilience of the destination. One example of this was, in September, to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with the US Virgin Islands, Carnival Fascination was redeployed and because of this, the Cruise Line cancelled calls to Barbados during October and will not return until the mid-February 2018.
The event was witnessed by cruise visitors reaching the island as this particularly busy day saw five ships berthed at the Port; Adonia and Azura of P&O Cruises, Riviera of Oceania Cruises, Norwegian Gem from Norwegian Cruise Line and Queen Mary 2 from Cunard Cruise Line.
