The Jamaica Port Authority, named World’s Leading Tourism Development Project and World’s Leading Cruise Destination by the World Travel Awards (WTA) has gone from strength to strength since opening the spectacular US$220 Falmouth Port last year, a project which many believed to be impossible.
Since arriving onto the scene, the dazzling development has injected new life into the already popular destination, attracting a more affluent and older clientele and renewed interest from international cruise lines. In 2011, over 460,410 cruise passengers birthed at Falmouth Port,boosting Jamaica’s total cruise visitors to 1,137,328, compared to 908,822 the previous year. Breaking Travel News checks in with William Tatham, Vice President of Cruise Shipping & Marina Operations to find out what’s on the agenda for the second half of 2012 for the Jamaica Port Authority and to discuss the second phase of developments at Falmouth. Breaking Travel News: How is business for the Jamaica Port Authority? William Tatham: Very well, we are experiencing 20% growth making us the fastest growing cruise destination in the world at the moment. This has primarily to do with the opening of Falmouth which has increased our birthing capacity by 50%, enabling us to address the challenge of lack of birthing capacity in winter months. With that increase we have been able to absorb a significant amount of demand received over the last couple of years for the winter season.