Callling on St. Kitts today was the Celebrity Equinox, the Azura, TUI Discovery and for the first time to the island, the Seven Seas Explorer.

Local tour operators were kept busy with various excursions throughout St. Kitts, including scenic island tours, hiking in the rainforest, safari treks, catamaran sailing; and also creative and specialty tours such as a tasting tour to various local food vendors in Basseterre, or merrily bar hopping to various liming spots in St. Kitts in an expedition truck.

“It is exciting to see our local people being creative and focused in doing business in this vibrant sector,” Minister Grant said. “With four ships in today I cannot stress enough how important it is that we continually strive for excellence, as it is the memory of the experience that we provide that will ensure our visitors return to our lovely island, to all of our benefit.”

Cruise ships will make a total of 391 calls to St. Kitts in this cruise season, with 16 new ships arriving here for the very first time.

In the last cruise season (2015-’16) cruise ships made 373 calls to St. Kitts, bringing 913,716 passengers, which was the most ever in a cruise season. This cruise season (2016-’17) is expected to be another record breaking season with a projected arrival of 1,125,927 passengers.