Cruise ship docked at the Ann E. Abramson Marine Facility on St. Croix. Photo Credit: V.I. CONSORTIUM
The V.I. Port Authority and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line will host a press conference at noon today to detail the cruise line’s plans to increase cruise passenger volume to St. Croix and St. Thomas, as well as a special passenger arrangement for St. John, VIPA announced Monday.
The press conference will be held today at noon at the Seatrade Cruise Global Convention Ports of the U.S. Virgin Islands Booth #1837 in the Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami, FL. The event will be broadcast on U.S. Virgin Islands radio on 107.9 Da Vybe FM and streamed live on The Virgin Islands Consortium’s Facebook page and VIPA’s Facebook page. The stream will also be carried live on the Consortium's website.
Today's unveiling will build upon last year's memorandum of understanding for a multi-year port development deal between VIPA and Royal Caribbean for enhancements at the Austin Monsanto Marine Facility in Crown Bay, St. Thomas and the Ann E. Abramson Marine Facility in Frederiksted, St. Croix.
For the Port Authority, the MOU bolsters the USVI's tourism product, specifically the cruise sector component, in a hyper-competitive environment. For Royal Caribbean, the agreement extends a 10-year deal inked in 2016 with VIPA and gives the cruise line preferential berthing at the authority's marine facilities in Crown Bay and Frederiksted.
"The Royal Caribbean Group wants to expand its presence in the U.S. Virgin Islands in St. Croix and St. Thomas, so that's one element you will see," said Joshua Carroll, vice president of destination development at Royal Caribbean during last year's scaled back Seatrade Cruise Global. He said traditionally the agreement between VIPA and Royal Caribbean tracked visitor volume to the USVI as a territory, however, "we're now actually going to break that out and have specific targets in both St. Croix and St. Thomas as a symbol of our commitment to the growth of St. Croix," he said.
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