Cruise PassengersCrunch
Cayman's finest,officers of the Royal Cayman Islands Police were on hand to directtraffic and assist the visitors.
The Islands' populationincreased by a third Wednesday, 23 January, when approximately14,000 cruise visitors came ashore.
In what could be a glimpse into the future,more than 10,000 cruise ship passengers descended on the capitalof George Town Wednesday, 23 January, taking over the capitalfor hours.
These visitors disgorged from six vesselsthat called on Grand Cayman in the morning and while they kepttraffic on its toes, they were a delight to business people onthe waterfront and its environs as they thronged through stores,and used up tourist transportation for trips to sites, and all-roundsoaked up the Island's hospitality.
This is not the first time that so manyvessels converged on the George Town Harbour and despite beingstretched thin and taxed close to the maximum officials - thoseat the port, officers of the RCIP, and shipping agents - adequatelyhandled the invasion.
While the passengers sailed on to otherdestinations with pleasant memories of their Grand Cayman experience,facilities here were strained pointing to a need for urgent expansionif the George Town port facility is to adequately take on suchnumbers on a regular basis as is expected.
The presence of these visitors promptedcomment from Leader of Government Business and Minister of Tourism,Hon. McKeeva Bush: "The cruise industry on the whole is agrowing business and Cayman has to take advantage of this development.It is for this reason planners are forging ahead to improve cruiseship passengers landing facilities for George Town and the searchis on for creation of another port for cargo".
He added, "We simply cannot managethe number of cruise passengers expected with the current facilities".
Mr Bush was referring to plans in theirfinal drafting stage to first construct a brand new pier and otherfacilities at a cost of $6.5 million then, in two following successivestages refurbish the current cruise ship landing and convert thecargo port to the third purpose-built cruise passengers welcomingpoint. The second and third stages are estimated to cost about$3 million dollars.
Adequate handling of the outpouring of cruisepassengers was also a concern for Director of the Port Authority,Mr Paul Hurlston, who told Cayman Net News that staff did wellin facilitating these visitors but doubted that with the currentinfrastructure they could do a similar job with those of numbersof people coming onshore three to four times per week.
He pointed to the inadequate pier facilitiesthat forced tenders full of eager visitors to hang offshore waitingfor other of these small vessels to unload their charges and makeroom.
"I think 14,000 for the facilitiesis a strain because they are not made to handle it often, thereis not enough room," he said.
He too referred to plans afoot for improvedcruise visitor accommodation and said, "We don't want toturn them away, we need them".
Stressing the urgent need for expansionhe said that bookings for ships arriving in port for 2002 showa 20 per cent increase over that of last year.
"We are going to be very busy thisyear, very busy if all goes along the way of the bookings we have,"he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gerry Kirkconnell told Cayman Net News his family-ownedbusiness is prepared to finance some relief to the crowding ifGovernment will approve a proposal to create a temporary landingfacility on the waterfront of the old Manse Church between theAtlantis Submarine shop and the Webster dock
Ms Luria Peterson, Operations Secretaryfor Bodden Shipping, the agents for the cruise ship companies,said it was possible that within this year's packed agenda anothersituation could arise in which six vessels arrive at the GeorgeTown Port on the same day.